ANTENN.E. 61 



segments show no trace of fracture ; but it is equally 

 certain that this is also the case in mutilated specimens 

 after a change of skin. If one removes part of the 

 antenna of an Orchesella, the injury is very apparent 

 until the creature moults, after which the end of the 

 antenna becomes more or less regular, according to 

 the time which has elapsed between the wound and 

 the moult. M. Bourlet states that this condition of 

 the antennge occurs only among the Heterotomce ; this, 

 however, is by no means the case. Most of the other 

 genera, indeed, having shorter antennse, are less liable 

 to injury; and mutilated specimens are therefore 

 much less frequent among them than in the genus 

 . Orchesella. 



Toinocerus, however (Macrotoma, Bourlet), also has 

 long antenna ; and here the mutilations are so fre- 

 quent that, as already mentioned, Bourlet actually de- 

 cribes the genus as having 3-jointed antennae, four 

 being the right number. I myself, though I have ex- 

 amined hundreds, have very rarely met with a full-grown 

 specimen of T. longicornis with perfect antennae. This 

 almost invariable mutilation is an extremely curious 

 fact. M. Bourlet affirms that really mutilated speci- 

 mens always show the " cicatrice." The term is scarcely 

 correct ; and, as I have already observed, the mark 

 only remains until the next moult. 



Lastly, M. Bourlet states that, having mutilated the 

 antenna of several specimens, and placed them with 

 othersin which the antennee wereunsymmetrical, he found 

 them at the end of three months exactly in the same con- 

 dition. This statement is quite contrary to my invariable 

 experience, and, unless he tried it in very cold weather, 

 he must, I think, have made a mistake. In summer 

 the moults always follow one another at comparatively 

 short intervals ; and at the first moult after mutilation 

 I have always found a considerable tendency to repara- 

 tion, which becomes still more manifest after two or 

 three changes of skin. 



The explanation of M. Bourlet's mistake, however, 



