PSYCHE. 



ORGAN OF THE CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB 

 EDITED BY B. PICKMAN MANN. 



Vol. I.] Cambridge, Mass., May, 1876. [No. 25. 



The Aborted Wings of Boreus. 



These curiously modified organs have been considered by 

 the writer as altogether useless appendages. In B. brumalis, 

 the anterior pair are long and narrow and slightly tapering 

 from base to tip ; the tips are curved downward and nearly 

 reach the end of the abdomen. The inferior pair are narrow 

 and ribbon-shaped ; are slightly longer than the superior pair, 

 and have a transverse fold near the end, by which, probably, 

 the tip is folded on the main portion. The upper pair are cor- 

 neous in texture, the inferior subcorneous. But the character- 

 istic which calls for particular attention is found in two series 

 of rather lono- stoutish acute spines, a series to either edo;e of 

 the inferior surface of the upper pair of wings (?). On the 

 basal fourth of these organs the spines are absent. Where they 

 are found they form a rather close series, stand at right angles 

 to the surface to which they are attached and gradually in- 

 crease in length to the final one at the tip, which is much 

 longer than any of the others. These spines, in conjunction 

 with the wings, I have reason to think, are used to support the 

 female in the act of copulation. In this act the female is borne 

 upon. the back of the male, assuming, while in this position, 

 that attitude which it assumes when alarmed and feigning 

 death — the limbs are contracted against the body, the head 

 drawn toward the breast and the antenna 1 laid along the ventral 

 surface — thus apparently doing nothing to hold itself secure, 

 yet maintaining itself when the male is leaping actively. When 

 we consider the convex surface of the abdomen of the male, 

 the support received from the connection of the sexual organs 

 would seem hardly enough to account for the linn position of 



