PERFECT INSECTS WITH THE LARVAL II HAD. 7 



'•La tete " (I give purposely Mueller's words), "cette etrange partie, 

 est grisatre et arrondie, plate au devant ; elle est composee, comrae le 

 sont ordinairement Ies tetes de chenilles, de deux lobes lateraux, gri- 

 satres et pointilles en noir, lesquels se joignant par-dessus, laissent au 

 milieu une figure triangulaire et briuie. C'est une membrane niinee, 

 qui a l'aide d'une loupe, laissait entrevoir une liqueur transparente, 

 agitee d'un mouvement eontinuel. 11 y a au baa du triangle deux 

 petits corps ovales. qui avancent sur deux organes noirs, lesquels se re- 

 pondent exactement et se choquent, au milieu de l'embouchure, comrae 

 deux marteaux. On voit a cote deux organes emousses de couleur 

 jaune, qui dans les chenilles sont communement garnis d'un poil fin, ce 

 qui manque ici ; plus has, il s'avance des cotes deux crochets coniques 

 et jaunatres qui se touchent au milieu de la bouche ; a l'entour on voit 

 quelques taches incarnates et grandes; plus a cote quelques points 

 brillants et par-ci par-la quelques petits brians de poils." 



The moth lived ten days, and deposited a number of green eggs, 

 most of them on the first and second days, some on the latter days up 

 to the 6th of August, when it died. The eggs were not developed. 



Mueller repeats a second time (p. 511): "On voit clairement le 

 mouvement peristaltique de la liqueur sous la membrane triangulaire, 

 aussi bien que le mouvement des organes de la bouche ; il ne s'en 

 trouve pas la moindre trace des antennes et trompe." 



It would not be justifiable to consider this statement pure and simple 

 an error, inasmuch as Mueller was undoubtedly one of the most promi- 

 nent naturalists, and must have known very well the importance of the 

 described facts. If the statement of Mueller is accepted as correct, the 

 specimen is an exception, and differs considerably from all others as 

 yet recorded. It must have been an imago, with the head of the cater- 

 pillar preserved ; not only with the skin covering the head of the 

 imago preserved, but with a real head of the caterpillar, in which the 

 circulation of the blood is still taking place, and the maxillary organs 

 are still movable. Such a condition of the parts is contrary to all our 

 present knowledge of the anatomy and the development of insects. It 

 is remarkable that the forelegs have not been developed, as the su- 

 perior part of the prothorax is similar to that of the imago. But 

 Mueller records and figures only the four posterior legs. 



The opinion of Mueller, that his moth represents a new and some- 

 what intermediate genus and species, is of course an erroneous one. 

 The supposition by Kirby and Spence, Introd.. Vol. Ill, p. 121 (transl. 

 Oken), that the head was damaged perhaps in the caterpillar state by 

 some parasite, and the caterpillar therefore was unable to cast off its 

 skin, needs no refutation. I cannot give any probable explanation of 

 the fact; perhaps it was a monstrosity, never observed but in this iso- 

 lated specimen. 



