262 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Labium in Gracilarxa 

 yobiniella (after Cham- 

 bers). 



labrum and labium greatly modified, 

 and must have lost all trace of its legs 

 and wings ; then it must have evolved 

 its lateral, membraneous, retractile legs 

 •in a different part of its body from that 

 in which the legs of in- 

 seccs are found, though 

 at corresponding places 

 on each segment after 

 the fourth ; then, in its 

 second stage, it must 

 have had all of its tro- 

 phi except the spinneret reduced to a mini- 

 mum, and then in passing into the pupa state 

 it again ascends by losing the membraneous 

 retractile legs, and developing the jointed 

 ones again in their jjroper place, together 

 with wings, maxillre and labial palpi, while 

 the labrum, labium and mandibles remain 

 degraded. 



There must have been, first, a process of 

 degradation whereby the insect lost most 

 of its organs and acquired some new 

 ones ; and then again a process of ele- 

 vation, whereby it lost its new organs and 

 had its old ones again restored to it in an 

 improved condition, except some of the 

 trophi. In Lithocolletis and Leucanthiza 

 the process of degradation did not go far 

 enough to supply any new limbs. It simply 

 deprived the insect of its palpi and maxil- 

 Ife and converted its articulated legs into 

 membraneous ones ; and then again, while 

 still in the mine, and subject to the same 

 conditions, re-elevated it by restoring its 

 maxillae and palpi at the fifth molt in two 

 of the groups, and at the third in another ; 

 and by restoring its jointed legs at the 

 third molt in one group, and at the fifth 

 and seventh, respectively, in the others. 

 The same course is followed in Corisciiim, 

 Ornix and Gracilaria, except that the de- 

 graded condition only lasts through the first 

 stage ; and in the second, and while still 

 subject to the same conditions in some 

 cases, but preparatory to a change of 

 mode of life in others, the larva is 

 restored to the supposed original form. 

 In such genera as JVepticula, Aspidisca, 

 Antispila, Gelechia, etc., the process of 

 degradation has not progressed so far. 



The larvae have the second form of trophi 

 when they leave tlie egg, and also jointed 

 legs, or, at most, have only replaced the 

 articulated legs by membraneous ones, 

 or by none at all, and the articulated 

 legs are restored again at or before 

 pupation. 



But has any such process of degradation 

 and re-elevation really occurred ? I do 

 not undertake to say that it has. We have 

 in science, especially in Biology, too much 

 positive assertion as to matters which are 

 purely speculative in their character. But 

 if all insects are derived from an original 

 form, and if that form was like Campodea, 

 or, as is probable, had even more pro- 

 nounced trophi, then such a process of 

 degradation and re-elevation as I have 

 indicated must have taken place. If, how- 

 ever, the original insect form was more 

 vermiform than Campodea — more like the 

 larva of Phylkh-nistis — then the process of 

 evolution has simply been one of elevation 

 alone, and not at all of degradation so far 

 as these genera are concerned. But in 

 either event it seems difficult to account 

 for the varied evolution of these different 

 species while subjected to identical condi- 

 tions of existence, by either natural selec- 

 tion or adaptation to conditions, without 

 at least a Guiding Intelligence of some 



kind. 



^--♦^ 



THE "MAGGOT" OF THE RICE FIELDS. 



BY JOHN SCREVEN, SAVANNAH, GA. 



This insect is found in the rice fields of 

 the South cultivated with water. In gen- 

 eral, these fields, whether supplied with 

 water from tidal streams or from "backed- 

 water " reservoirs, may be inundated or 

 drained at jjleasure. They are drained 

 from 2i to 4 feet in depth, are usually firm 

 under the tread of the horse, and may there- 

 fore be cultivated with all the mechanical 

 appliances of agriculture. Of these the 

 horse-rake alone has not yet been adapted 

 to the peculiar requirements of the rice 

 harvest. 



While the fields are thus thoroughly 

 drained, the rice plant, in the main aquatic 



