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III . — Perforating Proboscis Moths. By Henry J. Slack. 
{Read before the Royal Microscopical Society, Oct. 6, 1875.) 
At the meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society, on the 6th 
October, Mr. Slack, Hon. Sec., called attention to a slide of the 
perforating proboscis of a moth given by Mr. Mclntire to the 
Society in April, 1874, and described by him in a short paper 
of that date as having been purchased amongst damaged speci- 
mens, and said to have come from West Africa. Mr. Mclntire 
appears to have been the first observer who described this object, 
and thus opened a new chapter in the history of lepidopters, none 
of which had been supposed to be furnished with such an apparatus. 
Mr. Slack read some portions of a paper on this subject by M. J. 
Kiinckel which appeared in ‘ Comptes Rendus ’ of the French 
Academy for August 30 of this year, and the following extracts 
are supplied by him. 
M. Thozet, a French botanist, established in Australia, at 
Rockhampton, a little town on the Tropic of Capricorn, called 
M. Kiinckel’s attention, in 1871, to a lepidopter of the genus 
Ophideres which he accused of perforating oranges to feed upon 
their juice. Convinced, as all naturalists were, that lepidopters 
without exception had flexible probosces destitute of rigidity, 
M. Kiinckel doubted M. Thozet’s observation, and put aside the 
alleged devastators, intending to examine them at leisure. 
Lately he received a copy of the ‘ Capricornian,’ No. 9, 8th 
May, 1875, published at Rockhampton, and found in it an 
anonymous paper confirming M. Thozet’s account, and establish- 
ing beyond doubt that 0. Fullonica perforated the oranges, as 
stated before. 
M. Kiinckel then examined his specimen, and says, “ By a 
strange exception lepidopters of the genus Ophideres Boisd. have 
a rigid proboscis and a veritable auger and he describes it as 
capable of piercing the most resisting envelopes, and quite a model 
for an artisan’s tool. It is incorrect to call the proboscis rigid, as 
it curls up in the usual way; but instead of a soft terminal portion, 
it has a hard one which he thus describes. “ The two adpressed 
maxillae terminate in a sharp triangular point furnished with two 
barbs. They then swell out and present on the lower surface three 
parts of the thread of a screw, while their sides on the upper surface 
are covered with short spines springing from a depression with 
sharp hard sides. These spines are to tear the cells and the pulp 
of the oranges, as a rasp opens those of beetroot, to extract the sugar. 
The upper portion of the proboscis is covered from below and on 
the sides with fine serrated striae disposed in a half helix, which 
give it the qualities of a file. These striae are from time to time 
