428 SUMMARY OF CTJRKENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



lower pharyngeal wall ; the former always fuses more or less with 

 the labrum, and the latter becomes connected with the labium, and 

 serves as an excretory apparatus for the secretion of the salivary 

 glands which open at its base. The author next refers to Savigny's 

 well-known account of the morphology of the parts in the Lepidoptera, 

 and reminds us of the objections to it raised by Meinert and Ticho- 

 mirow. Dr. Walter finds that Micropteryx has mandibles which are 

 able to bite, and which have the form of well-developed horny pieces, 

 with strong horny teeth on the cutting edge ; somewhat similar 

 mandibles reduced in form are to be found in some other genera of 

 Microlepidoptera. The remaining mouth-parts of Micropteryx present 

 us with very primitive characters ; the cardo and stipes of the first 

 pair of maxillse are completely separated, as are also the palps ; the 

 outer one presents us with the most primitive condition of the lepi- 

 dopterous proboscis ; the inner one consists of a horny piece which 

 supports the inner parts of the labium. The rudiments of the proboscis 

 do not therefore lie against one another, but are widely separated at the 

 sides of the mouth-opening, and only converge towards their tips. 

 The three-jointed labial palps arising from the mentum have behind 

 them two chitinous plates beset with strong setae, the free mal8B 

 externse, and between them there is a short, broad tubule. After 

 comparing with these the mouth-organs of allied forms, the author 

 passes to the question of the origin of the gnathites of the Lepidoptera. 



Speyer has already endeavoured to ally them to the Phryganidse, 

 but the space which he recognizes as separating them is not bridged 

 over by Micropteryx; Walter, therefore, turns to the Diptera, re- 

 membering the sword-shaped mandibles of Tinea, the elongated 

 labium of the higher Micropteryginas, and the presence of true lepi- 

 dopterous scale in the flies with a long proboscis; the greatest 

 resemblance is to be seen in the lowest Hymenoptera ; it is among 

 the Hymenoptera alone that we find imagines with a strongly incised 

 labrum, and in them and butterflies an epipharynx, the base of which 

 is fused with the labium, while the end is free. 



To sum up, the Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Phry- 

 ganidee present a collection of agreeing characters, which are repeated 

 in no other order ; the agreement between the first three is most 

 marked, while the last give a direct passage to the lower mandibulate 

 insects. The first three — the representatives of the old group of Insecta 

 sugentia, may be regarded as naturally allied to, and as arising from 

 the Neuroptera through the Phryganidae. Both the Lepidoptera and 

 Hymenoptera, while widely diverging in their highest forms, present 

 in their lowest a series of characters, which indicate a close connec- 

 tion with such Diptera as have not been specially modified by para- 

 sitic, blood-sucking, or other special habits. Further details are 

 promised. 



Vitality of Silkworm Ova.* — In answer to a criticism by Prof. 

 v^erson,'!' Prof. L. Luciani reasserts his conclusion | that the hiber- 



* Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., xvii. (1885) pp. 185-91. 



t Bull. Mens. d. Bacliicoltura, 1885, No. 2. 



X Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., xvii. (1885) pp. 71-88. 



