PSYCHE. 33 
friction of the wing against the air. Hy- 
menoptera and diptera are the only true 
buzzing insects, and according to De Bel- 
lesme produce two sounds, a grave and a 
sharp. The latter is produced by the vibra- 
tions of the thorax. The thoracic stigmata 
may be closed without destroying the hum- 
ming power, thus disproving Landois’s 
theory. 
Mr. Perez” in a supplementary com- 
munication does not agree with Mr. De 
Bellesme in thinking that a conical move- 
ment of the thorax (whatever that may be) 
ean produce a sound, because on fixing the 
animal with a pin the movements are very 
attenuated, without the movements of the 
wings and the buzzing being destroyed, or 
even weakened.” 
Mr. Carl Gissler describes * the repug- 
natorial glands of Hleodes as two reddish- 
brown, semi-bilobed pieces in the form of 
a Y, extending from the base of the last, 
to the middle of the second segment, a 
length of about 6.5 mm. He did not suc- 
ceed in recognizing the nature of the secre- 
tion. 
The balancers in the diptera have been 
studied by Messrs. J. De Bellesme *® and 
Rob. Desvoidy,® but I have not been able 
to see the paper of either. 
Dr. W. Breitenbach ® describes the pe- 
culiar appendages on the proboscis of the 
lepidoptera, which he thinks enable the 
insect to pierce the tissues of flowers, &c., 
for honey or other juices. The orange- 
27 Rev. Internat. Soc., v. 3, (79), p. 281. 
28 Quoted from Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc., v. 2, p. 
408. 29 Psyche, v. 2, p. 209. 
®) Balanciers chez les Ins. dipt. 96 pp. Paris, 
Germar Bailliere & Cie. 
81 Bull. sci. Dépmt. du Nord, 2 s., v. 1, p. 217. 
sucking moth, Ophideres fullonica, the 
structure of whose proboscis was first made 
known by Mr. Francis Darwin, is of course 
the typical example of this power in the 
lepidoptera, but Breitenbach shows that 
many other genera of butterflies and moths 
are armed, though less formidably, for sim- 
ilar purposes. These appendages are of 
course confined to the end of the proboscis, 
and are modifications of simple hair struc- 
tures, such as are found on the basal por- 
tion, consisting of the hair itself and the 
annular basal ridge from which it grows. 
This ring becomes lengthened into a cylin- 
drical body, still having the terminal hair, 
which, however, becomes much reduced — 
often to a simple papilla. The end of the 
cylinder is then armed with teeth, or its 
sides develop ribs or plates, or sometimes 
several rows of teeth. Indeed we find a 
large number of patterns connected by 
more or less numerous stages of develop- 
ment, and which Breitenbach believes may 
furnish useful systematic characters. Every 
step in the evolution of the simple hair to 
the perfected barb on the proboscis of 
Ophideres may be traced. The author 
seeks to reconcile the view that these 
structures are taste organs, by suggest- 
ing that this function may belong to the 
simple hairs, some of which, however, 
have been developed by natural selection 
into boring organs.” 
Mr. Jules Kiinckel™ has examined the 
termination of the nerves in the proboscis 
82 Arch. Mikr. Anat., v. 15, p. 8, and Katter’s 
Entom. Nachr., v. 5, p. 238. 
33 See also a note in Carus’ Zool. Anzeig., v. 2, 
p. 427. 
84 Assoc. Franc. Avance. Sci. (1878), 771. From 
notice in Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc., v. 2, p. 865. 
