24 Mr. P. H. Gosse. The Prehensores of Male [Nov. 17, 



organs, in the Lepidoptera, little seems to have been yet done, except 

 the memoir of Dr. F. Buchanan White, " On the Male Genital Arma- 

 ture in the European Rhopalocera," published in the " Trans, of the 

 Linn. Soc." for December 21, 1876. His investigations prove that 

 the variety which marks these organs — in form, position, and curious 

 armature — is almost endless ; and they have opened a quite new field 

 of study in Comparative Entomology, eminently worthy of being 

 further cultivated. 



The researches of Dr. White were limited to European forms. The 

 fine butterflies of the vast genus Papilio, being trans-European almost 

 exclusively, are scarcely touched by him ; and, for obvious reasons, 

 these have been little submitted to destructive dissection and exhaus- 

 tive examination. 



The prehensile auxiliaries to generation, in the restricted genus 

 Papilio (including Ornithoptera), I have been for some time examin- 

 ing ; and I find the variety and singularity of the contrivances dis- 

 played therein certainly not less conspicuous than Dr. White's researches 

 would lead us to expect. The results are emobdied in the present 

 memoir, which comprises detailed descriptions of the male prehensile 

 apparatus in sixty-nine species (viz,, Ornithoptera, 11 ; Papilio, 58) ; 

 illustrated by 196 drawings (viz., Om. 29; Pap. 167) of the parts, 

 magnified. 



The organs which constitute the special subjects of examination 

 are five in number, viz. : — 



1. The Valve. 



2. The Harpe. 



3. The Uncus. 



4. The Scaphium. 



5. The Penis. 



1. The Valve. — Every entomologist knows that the male sex of a 

 swallowtail butterfly is distinguished by its abdomen terminating in 

 two broad ovate plates, called the anal valves, articulated to the 

 eighth segmeut ; convex outwardly, concave inwardly ; whose edges 

 are in mutual contact during rest, inclosing and concealing an ample 

 cavity. 



2. The Harpe. — If we remove one of the valves, and examine its 

 concave inner side, we find a peculiar appendage, to which I give the 

 name of Harpe (ap7rrj), lodged within the hollow. It takes an infinite 

 variety of forms, being never (so far as I have observed) the same in 

 two species, however nearly they may be affined. It is, in general, a 

 weapon of hard, horny chitine, usually glittering like glass, articulated 

 in part to the base of the inclosing valve, in part to a projecting knob 

 of chitine within the bottom of the eighth segment. It lies in the 

 valve-cavity, to whose lining membrane it is affixed, to a certain extent ; 



