MR. NEWPORT ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF THE SPHINX LIGUSTRI. 395 



will show us that it is regulated by evident design, and is one of those beautiful pro- 

 visions in the animal economy by which harmony in the functions of every part of 

 the body is preserved. The wings, the organs of the most varied and rapid motion, 

 endowed with an equal degree of sensibility and power, are required at every effort of 

 the insect to act in the most perfect unison, and hence must be supplied with their 

 energy from the same centre. That this is the reason for the union of these nerves, 

 is, I think, apparent, from the fact that in the Bee, the Ichneumon, and other hy- 

 menopterous insects remarkable for their velocity and power of flight, the nerves to 

 the wings originate almost precisely in the same manner as in the Sphinx and its 

 affinities ; while in others, as in the Panoiya communis, Linn., or Scorpion Fly, they 

 originate by double-rooted pairs, just as in the larva of the Sphinx ; and the insect is 

 neither remarkable for its velocity nor equability of motion. And it may be further 

 stated, that in winged coleopterous insects, in which the wing-covers are merely 

 elevated, and are motionless during flight, the wings alone being actively employed, 

 the nerves to the two organs are not always united, but often originate separately from 

 the great nervous centres, and are continued to their distribution as separate trunks, 

 like the nerves to the legs or the antennae. 



The cords in the abdomen of the Sphinx in its perfect state, like those of the 

 thorax, are covered in by a curious structure, of the exact nature of which it is diffi- 

 cult to form a conclusion. It is spread over the whole like a broad riband [Plate XIV. 

 fig. 9. («)], from their commencement in the first, to their termination in the ante- 

 penultimate segment, and seems to bind down and protect the cords and ganglia in 

 their course along the abdomen, whatever other office it may be thought to perform. 

 The ganglia, and the nerves distributed from them, scarcely differ from those of the 

 pupa, excepting only the two anterior pairs from the terminal ganglion. These, in 

 the female Sphinx, are very much elongated, and are enfolded around the ovarial tubes 

 and organs of generation, among which they are distributed. With a little care they 

 can be easily separated from them. The terminal pair of nerves, as in other insects, 

 is distributed conjointly to the rectum and organs of generation. 



Besides the nerves and ganglia which constitute the symmetrical parts of the 

 system, there are others, including those of the head and mouth, that require more 

 particular notice. They are arranged in two classes : 1 . Nerves of the senses; 2. Nerves 

 of involuntary functions. 



II. 1 . Nerves of the Senses. 

 a. Nerves of the Antennoe. — These, in the Sphinx and other Lepidoptera, originate 

 each by a single root from the anterior part of the cerebral ganglia, close to the base 

 of the optic nerves. After entering the base of the antennae they give off* a considerable 

 number of branches ; but the real nature of the organs themselves is yet undetermined. 

 It is evident that they are endowed with the sense of touch, and are used by many 

 insects, Grasshoppers, Beetles, &c., as cerebral feelers. The structure of the antennae 



