Misce llan eo us. 



373 



making of new tools to be employed in boring holes in various 

 materials. Partaking at once of the barbed lance, the gimlet, and 

 the rasp, it can pierce, bore, and tear, at the same time allowing 

 liquids to pass without impediment by the internal canal. The two 

 applied maxillae terminate in a sharp triangular point, furnished 

 with two barbs ; they then become enlarged, and present on the 

 lower surface three portions of the thread of a screw ; while their 

 sides and their upper surface are covered with short strong spines, 

 projecting from the centre of a depression with hard and abrupt 

 margins. The purpose of these spines is to tear the cells of the 

 orange-pulp, as the rasp serves to open the cells of the beetroot, in 

 order to extract the sugar from them. The upper region of the 

 trunk is covered below and on the sides with fine close-set stria?, 

 arranged in half-screws, which give it the properties of a file ; the 

 stria? are interrupted here and there by small spines of soft con- 

 sistence, which serve for the perception of tactile sensations. The 

 orifice of the canal through which the liquids ascend is situated on 

 the lower surface below the first screw-thread. The annexed figures 

 will serve to render this short description sufficiently intelligible. 



A B C 



Trunk of Ophideres fuUonica. A, in profile ; B, from below : 

 above; t, interior canal; o, orifice of the canal. 



C, from 



Not content with examining Ophideres fuUonica, Linn., I investi- 

 gated all the representatives of the genus, and found that 0. materna, 

 Linn., 0. scdaminia, Cram., 0. imperator, Boisd., as well as the other 

 species, have a powerful trunk in the form of a borer. The struc- 

 ture of the maxilla? therefore furnishes a generic character of 

 great value ; moreover it establishes a closer relationship between 

 the Lepidoptera, the Hemiptera, and certain Diptera in which the 

 maxilla? are destined to pierce tissues. 



The Australian colonists dread 0. fuUonica on account of the 

 mischief caused by it in the orange-plantations : for the fruits which 



