This blade is supposed to be liomologous with the outer lobe of 

 the typical maxilla, which forms the galea in the Orthoptera. 

 Behind and crossing this part lies the long forked rod, or " fish- 

 bone " of Burmeister, supposed to represent the inner lobe or 

 blade of the maxilla, and which I shall call the "fork." Mr. 

 Scudder was led, by the appearance of a specimen of Atropos, 

 to consider that this fork consists of two elbow-jointed pieces, 

 capable of being thrust suddenly forward to pierce any object. 

 In an insect, however, which feeds on decaying vegetable or 

 animal matter, such an organ would seem rather out of place, 

 and in fact does not exist. The fork may be described as 

 a long flattened rod or bone, slightly curved inwards, pro- 

 jecting between the blade of the maxilla and the labrum ; its 

 free or distal end forked with short tines, the outer tine being 

 the longer. 



In a position of rest the base of the fork reaches far back 

 into the head. Near or beyond the middle, the fork is sharply 

 contracted and then gradually tapers to the base. At the 

 point of contraction the bone enters, and unites with, the 

 lining membrane of the mouth. The base of the fork is em- 

 bedded in a cone-shaped mass of extensor muscles ; of which 

 one large one runs into the upper part of the cardo, and was 

 mistaken, I presume, by Mr. Scudder, for the inner arm of his 

 supposed elbowed fork. The fork lies, moreover, between the 

 rest of the maxilla and the flexor muscles of cardo and blade, 

 so that they must aid in keeping it in place. It will be seen, 

 therefore, that the bone is not articulated either to the maxilla 

 or to the head, but is held in place by the muscles at its base 

 and the membrane Avhich it pierces and is attached to, near the 

 middle. This membrane is probably more or less elastic, and 

 allows the fork to be slightly projected and retracted, while the 

 muscles move it about in various directions. Its probable use 

 would thus seem to be that of a sort of pick to detach particles 

 of food and bring them within reach of the mandibles, which 

 are covered by the upper hp, and would be perhaps with diffi- 

 culty themselves applied to detach portions from a mass of food. 

 The question of homologiziiig the fork with the inner lobe of 

 the maxilla, I think must be still left open. 



