HEAD AND MOUTH-PARTS OF MECOPTERA. 



Faustino Q. Otanes, 

 Bureau of Agriculture, Manila, Philippine Islands. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Our knowledge of the head and mouth-parts of the 

 Mecoptera is fragmentary. Nothing comprehensive has been 

 published dealing with the study of a collection of genera and 

 species representative of the entire order. It was with the object 

 of contributing to our knowledge of the morphology of the head 

 and mouth-parts of the Mecoptera and to invite further inves- 

 tigation on the subject that this study was undertaken. 



In order to make the work as comprehensive as possible, an 

 attempt was made to study as many species as could be 

 obtained, representing the different genera. Comstock, in his 

 Manual for the Study of Insects, recognizes only one family of 

 Mecoptera, the family Panorpidae. In his paper on the Panor- 

 pidce of America North of Mexico, Hine (1901) listed five 

 genera, namely: Merope, Boreus, Panorpodes, Panorpa and 

 Bittacus, dividing these into two groups, those with ocelli in 

 one group and those without in the other. Merope and Boreus 

 were placed in the first group and Panorpodes, Pa?iorpa and 

 Bittacus in the second. In a recent monograph of the Mecoptera, 

 Esben- Petersen (1921) lists five families, namely: Bittacidae, 

 Boreidag, Panorpidae, Natiothaumidas and Meropidae. I have 

 been able to study all of the genera listed by Hine. This com- 

 prises all of the families in Petersen's monograph with the 

 exception of one, the family Natiothaumidae, which like the 

 family Meropidae, includes only one species {Natiothauma reedi 

 MacLachlan) and this is known to exist only in Chile and is 

 very rare. 



This study was carried on under the direction of Dr. Alex. 

 D. MacGillivray, of the University of Illinois, and to him I am 

 indebted for his constant encouragement and valuable sugges- 

 tions and criticisms throughout the progress of this work. I 

 am also indebted to Dr. MacGillivray for his efforts in securing 



Contributions from the Entomological Laboratories of the University of 

 Illinois, No. 70. 



310 



