Nov. 14, 1884.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



397 





Fitr. 1. 



ri<r. 3. 





r^y^ 



Fis. 2. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 1. Ovipositing Apparatus of TiptiZa oleracea. — A, ovipositor; B, forceps to move the ground and make room for the eggs (xlO)- 

 Pig. 2. Tongue of ditto ( xGO). — Opening it to show strncture, broke the large psendo-trachese ; A, B and C, D formed two curved 

 vessels in their natural state. Fig. 3. Some pseudo-tracheie in centre of the organ, the small ones springing from the larger; 

 the large one omitted on right (x600). Fig. 4. A, Proboscis of Rhingias rostrata ( x 10) ; B, Portion of tip (x320). — The htkirs and 

 ornamental leopard spots are omitted. The lateral trachere are twenty-six on each lobe. 



good flyers. Their outer margins are set with thick spines, 

 the inner with larger and fioer one?, and the intercostal 

 spaces covered with minute hairs. The poisers are very 

 conspicuous, and look like long-handled battledores. They 

 are well worth mounting in Canada balsam, and are more 

 winglike in aspect than those of most other flies. 



The antennfe are long ; composed, according to Westwood, 

 of from thirteen to sixteen joints. Those of a female now 

 before the writer has the former number. Mounted in 

 balsam, they show each joint to commence with a slight 

 bulge from which spring four bristles. All the joints are 

 covered with numerous fine hairs springing from trans- 

 parent spots, which have a pretty efiect in a good light or 

 with dark ground illumination. The snouty projection is in 

 front of the antennae, and carries at its tip two four-jointed 

 palpi and the remarkable tongue. The last joint of the 

 palp is beautifully ringed. 



The tongue is the most marvellous specimen of the blow- 

 fly pseudo-tracheal sort the writer has met with. It is 

 short and broad. On each side is a thick, fleshy cushion, 

 covered with bristles on its outer surface ; inside are very 

 numerous groups of pseudo-trachea?, and in the centre a 

 thinner portion also abounding in them. The Blow-fly, or 



the Drone-fly proboscis opens and shuts its two lobes, much 

 like the opening and shutting of a book. The tipula tongue 

 is more like the form obtained by the curve of two haman 

 hands holding a big apple within their grasp. The general 

 shape is shown in Fig. 2, sketched from a specimen mounted^ 

 without squeezing, in a shallow cell of Canada balsam. It 

 is slightly altered in appearance by being forced open^ 

 which has broken the large pseudo-trachere in the central 

 portion, and put the two halves a little way apart. Rg. S 

 shows a few of the pseudo-tracheoe in the centre of this 

 organ, as seen with an oil immersion y\th and "A" eye- 

 piece. 



It is difiicult to count all their pseudo-trachese, as, when 

 the tongue is whole and in its natural state, many are not 

 visible from the superposition of parts, and taking it to 

 pieces accurately requires much patience and skill — more 

 than the writer can boast of. The number, however, seems 

 about 300, and for our present purpose a few more or less 

 do not matter. There is an enormous advance in the 

 complexity of this organ, not only from such a ample 

 form as that of Rhingias rostrata, but also from that 

 of the Blow-fly or the Drone-fly. Of what advan- 



tage 



it to the Daddy - Longlegs to possess 



