44 



TEXT-BOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY 



He also describes that of Diptera. What Walter has lately 

 proved to be the epipharynx of Lepidoptera was regarded by Sav- 

 igny and all subsequent writers as the labrum. 



The latest account of the function of this organ is that by Chesh- 

 ire, who states that the tube made by the maxillae and labial palpi 

 cannot act as a suction pipe, because it is open above. " This opening 

 is closed by the front extension of the epipharynx, which closes down 

 to the maxillae, fitting exactly into the space they leave uncovered, 

 and thus the tube is completed from their termination to the 

 ossophagus." 



It is singular that this organ is not mentioned in Burmeister's 

 Manual of entomology, in Lacordaire's Introduction a 1'entomologie, 



or by Newport in his admirable article 

 Insecta in Todd's Cyclopedia of anat- 

 omy. Neither has Straus-Durckheim 

 referred to or 

 figured it in 

 his great work 

 on the anato- 

 my of Melol- 

 ontha vulgaris. 

 In their ex- 

 cellent work 

 on the cock- 

 roach, Miall 

 and Denny 



state that "The epipharynx, which is 

 a prominent part in Coleoptera and 



Diptera, is not recognizable in Orthoptera " (p. 45). We have, how- 

 ever, found it to be always present in this order (Figs. 26, 27). 



We are not aware that any modern writers have described or 

 referred to the epipharynx of the mandibulate orders of insects. 

 Although Dr. G. Joseph speaks of finding taste-organs on the 

 palate of almost every order of insects, especially plant-feeding 

 forms, we are unable to find any specific references, his detailed 

 observations being apparently unpublished. 



The epipharnyx is so intimately associated with the elongated 

 labium of certain Diptera, that, Avith Dr. Dimmock, we may refer to 

 the double organ as the labrum-epipharynx ; and where, as in the 

 lepidopterous Microptei^yx semipurpureUa, described and figured by 

 Walter, and the Panorpidse (Panorpa and Boreus), the labrum seems 

 pieced out with a thin, pale membranous fold which appears to be 



FIG. 26. Epipharynx of Pfianerop- 

 tera any <uf<ti 'folia : cl, clypeus ; Ibr. e, 

 labrum-epipharynx ; tc, taste cups, both 

 on the clypeal and on the labral regions. 



FIG. 27. Epipharynx otf/n- 

 denoecus subterraneus, cave 

 cricket. 



