84 Psyche [June 



THE ORIGIN AXD HOMOLOGIES OF THE SO-CALLED 

 "SUPEELIXGU^" OR 'TARAGLOSS^" (PARAGJ^TATHS) 



OF INSECTS AXD RELATED ARTHROPODS. 

 By G. C. Crasipton, Ph. D., 



Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass. 



In several recent papers published in the Fiftieth Report of the 

 Entomological Society of Ontario, the Transactions of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London, and the Annals of the Entomological 

 Society of America, I have called atteution to many current mis- 

 interpretations of the homologies of various structures in insects; 

 but since no figures were there given, in which the parts of insects 

 were compared with those of Crustacea and allied arthropods, I 

 would present the following brief consideration of the comparative 

 anatomy of the paragnaths (or "superlinguse") in insects, Crus- 

 tacea, etc., as the second of a series of papers dealing with the 

 comparative morphology of insects and their arthropodan relatives, 

 from the standpoint of evolution (the first paper of the series,, 

 which deals with the evolution of the mandibles, has recently been 

 published in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society). 



During the course of these investigations, it has been a source 

 of continual amazement to me that such patently impossible, aiid 

 obviously untenable views concerning the interpretation of the 

 mouthparts of insects, as are now current among entomologists^ 

 could have gained such rmiversal acceptance in these days of scien- 

 tific progress, when abundant, and easily-examined material, illus- 

 trating the true interpretation of the parts so clearly that the 

 veriest tyro could not mistake them, is available to anyone with 

 enterprise enough to capture a common mayfly naiad (nymph) 

 from the nearest stony brook, and compare it with any common 

 Asellus from the nearest pond ! That this statement is not exag- 

 gerated may be seen, for example, when one compares the much- 

 misunderstood ""superlinguffi," "paraglossa?," or "maxillulfe" of an 

 insect, such as the common mayfly naiad shown in Fig. 2 (Plate 

 V), with the corresjiondiug parts in one of the common Ligijda 

 exotica (Fig. 1) from the Carolina coast. The ubiquitous Asellus 



