PERFECT INSECTS WITH THE LARVAL HEAD. 
7 
'•La tete " (I give purposely Mueller's words), " cette etrange partie, 
est grisatre et arrondie, plate au devant ; elle est composee, comme le 
sont ordinairement les tetes de chenilles, de deux lobes lateraux, gri- 
satres et pointilles en noir, lesquels se joignaht par-dessus, laissent au 
milieu une figure triangulaire et brune. C'est une membrane mince, 
qui a l'aide d'une loupe, laissait entrevoir une liqueur transparente, 
agitee d'un mouvement continuel. II y a au bas du triangle deux 
petits corps ovales, qui avancent sur deux organes noirs, lesquels se res- 
pondent exactement et se choquent, au milieu de l'embouchure, comme 
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 bas, 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. 
