ON THE ANTENN IN THE LEPIDOPTERA. 
BY AUG. R: GROTE, A. M. 
In a paper read before the Portland meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, I endeavored to show 
that the antenn in the moths, or night-flying Lepidoptera, were 
more highly specialized than in the butterflies, and that this spe- 
cialization of structure was correlated with habit in these insects. 
I stated that the antenna were more actively used by the moth 
than by the butterfly, and I suggested that their sensitiveness was a 
protection and an assistance to the night-flying moths in directions 
where a change to a diurnal habit rendered such sensitiveness less 
necessary to the butterfly. In two instances I was led to reject 
conclusions with regard to the antenn that had already appeared 
in print. The first of these is the hitherto accepted and arbitrary 
division of the Lepidoptera into two sections under the terms 
Rhopalocera, or club-horned, and Heterocera or diversely-horned. 
I endeavored to show, that the change in the antennal form was a 
gradual one, from the neuropteriform antenne of the Tineide, or 
lowest moths, to the butterfly-like antennæ of the Castniares, or 
highest moths ; that the antenne of the Hesperidz were quite dif- 
ferent from the butterflies ; and that the change in antennal struc- 
ture throughout the suborder was really expressed by a greater 
rigidity and equalization in length, or was one of direction and 
attitude. As the antenne become less serviceable to the insect 
they become more rigid and in position more elevated above the 
head, as in the butterfly, while in the moth they are more whip-like 
and are directed forwards or, in a state of rest, frequently thrown 
ards by the sides of the body, beneath the wings. The 
Second instance is that of Dr. Clemens,* who came to the con- 
clusion that the antenne, in the Lepidoptera, “instead of being 
organs of any special sense, as they are usually regarded, are in- 
struments of atmospheric palpation.” I have endeavored to show 
that Dr. Clemens’ experiments with the moth Platysamia cecropia, 
instead of being confirmatory of this view, point to an exactly 
* Journal Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1859, p. 122. x 
(519) 
