196 Transactions of the 



II. — Note on a curious Proboscis of an unknown Moth. 



By S. J. McIntike, F.E.M.S. 



(^Bead 'before the Royal Microscopical Society, April 1, 1874.) 



Plate LIX. (Lower portion). 



The notion entertained by most entomologists of the structure of 

 the mouths of the Lepidoptera is that of a pair of long tubes 

 locked intimately to each other by a multitude of minute hooks for 

 the whole of their length. The space between the two halves, an 

 artificial tube, is the passage by which the nectar of flowers is con- 

 veyed to the stomach, and the communication between this passage 

 and the food to be eaten is effected by means of curious papillous 

 appendages at the free extremities of the outer tubes, or, in the 

 case of a vast number of the order, by apertures in the same 

 situations. The haustellum of the cabbage butterfly is an example 

 of the one type, and that of the swallow-tail butterfly of the other. 



As regards the function of the organ, which in rest is spirally 

 folded in front of the head between the palpi, it is generally 

 accepted, I think, that it is fitted for suction, and has no power to 

 penetrate any membrane, or other protective covering of a flower's 

 nectary. 



But I have met with an example which has puzzled me exceed- 

 ingly, and, so far as I have been able to learn, is unique. Had I 

 known this at the time, I should have taken pains to keep and 

 identify the insect from which it was obtained. But being occu- 

 pied in accumulating curious lepidopterous scales for the investiga- 

 tion of the head question and its other intricacies, I neglected this 

 duty, and am now obliged to tax my memory for particulars. 



The insect was a drab-coloured moth, inclining to reddish 

 brown, about 2^ inches across the wings, and I bought it among a 

 quantity of damaged lepidoptera said to come from West Africa. 

 The two halves of the haustellum had separated from each other 

 for the greater portion of their length, and curled over to the right 

 and left. The stoutness of the organ in comparison to its length 

 caught my attention as curious, and so I mounted both halves in 

 balsam. One I gave away, and the other I intend to present to 

 the cabinet of this Society. 



The points of difference between this object and the general 

 structure of the haustella of the Lepidoptera are : first, the abundant 

 fringes of hairs (some short, others long) on the outer margin of the 

 spiral, near its extremity ; and second, the structure of the termina- 

 tion of the tube. This ends in a hard chitinous point, and above it, 

 externally, are several formidable recurved spines. When the two 

 halves were locked together in life, the whole organ must have 

 terminated in a hard and tolerably sharp point, strong enough to 



