47 



MARGINAL WING BRISTLES IN LEPIDOPTERA. 



By Ambrose Quail, F.E.S. 



In the present article I do not make an exhaustive enquiry 

 into the subject, and although not previously observed by me in 

 my examination of the wings while studying the neuration — 

 maybe the bristles have been destroyed when the wing scales 

 were being removed — it seems impossible that they have been 

 overlooked by others. Incidentally, I have read a good deal that 

 has been written in reference to wing structure in the Lepidoptera, 

 but I cannot recollect a record hitherto, and such works as are 

 available make no reference to the presence of erect marginal 

 bristles at regular intervals on the wings of certain Lepidoptera. 



I first noticed them while preparing drawings of wing scales for 

 illustration by lantern in a recent local lecture. 



Having examined different species amongst the Geometrse and 

 observed the bristles to be present, I selected a British specimen 

 of Melanippe fluctuata to demonstrate the existence of the 

 bristles. This species has considerable affinity to the antipodean 

 Asaphodes megaspilata, on which I first observed them. 



The bristles once observed are very noticeable, and remind 

 one of the smooth setae of some larvae. So far as my observations 

 go they rise from the upper surface in the Geometrae ; they are 

 erect, not perpendicular, but nearly so ; smooth and apparently 

 circular in section, and taper from a substantial base to a fine 

 curved point — the curve directed inward away from the fringes. 

 At the base of the bristles is a round elevated " button," several 



