1900] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



313 



The course of this histolysis and histogenesis, whose finding 

 out has been the chief object of my study of Blepharocera, is, 

 however, too complex a subject for consideration'in these brief 

 notes. 



The Imago. The imagines have the general seeming of small 

 Tipulids (Fig. 3, A). The legs are very long land the bodies 

 slender. The females are larger than the males, and have 

 more robust abdomens. To two specially interesting points in 

 the structure of the imagines I wish to call attention. 



Fig. 3. Blepharocera capitata Loew ; A, female ; B, head of female, ceph- 

 alic aspect. 



In attempting to understand the specialized mouth parts of 

 the sucking and piercing insects it is necessary for us to find 

 the most generalized condition of the mouth parts existing in 

 any of the groups of sucking insects whose mouth parts are to 

 be studied. Among the Lepidoptera, for example, there exist 

 in two or three small moths (Eriocephala, Micropteryx) mouth 

 parts of such generalized condition that their parts can be 

 readily and certainly homologized with the familiar, simple 

 orthopterous biting type. Between these simplest, easily 

 understood mouth parts of Eriocephala and the highly special- 

 ized mouth of the sphinx moth there exist all the gradations 

 necessary to allow us to understand the course of specializa- 

 tion and the homologies of the extraordinary sphinx proboscis . 

 Among the Hymenoptera a similar condition prevails, and the 

 complex '' tongue" of a honey bee is understood, and the 



