1890.] 
83 
[Packard. 
V. Hints on the origin of the cervical or prothoracic shield. 
VI. Suggestions as to the origin of the caudal spine in Bom- 
byces, and the phylogeny of the group. 
VII. Note on the suranal and paranal plates and forks of various 
Bombycine and Geometrid caterpillars. 
VIII. The distribution of glandular setae in the early stages of 
Lepidopterous larvae. 
IX. Hints on the origin of the Rhopalocera. 
I. ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE ABDOMINAL LEGS. 
While the morphology of the legs and feet of adult insects has 
been elaborated by Tuffen West 1 (1862), Dahl (1884) 2 and Gra- 
ber (Die Insekten), I am not aware that anything has been added 
to our knowledge of the structure of the abdominal legs of Lepi- 
doptera since the days of Malpighi, Reaumur and Lyonnet. 
Malpighi (De Bombyce, London, 1669) in his Tabula n cor- 
rectly, though roughly, figures the abdominal legs of the silk worm 
( Bombyx mori), with the crochets. 
Reaumur, in the first volume of his Memoires, describes and 
well figures these legs, giving them the name of membranous legs 
and aptly calling the hooks crochets , which well expresses their pe- 
culiar shape. He refers to the terminal segment which bears the 
rows of crochets under the name of palette triangulaire , the sides of 
which he describes as curvilinear and refers to the leg itself as the 
handle of this palette. Of the crochets he has counted more than 
sixty in the foot of some caterpillars, arranged in two rows, a row 
of small ones so arranged that one of them is opposite the space 
between two larger ones. He also notices that the palette forms a 
disc, of which more than a half of the inner circumference is armed 
with crochets. Reaumur then describes the movements of these 
abdominal legs during locomotion. 
When the caterpillar uses its foot to walk, the planta or inner 
portion swells and is applied against the plane on which it walks ; 
the 'crochets simply aid in strengthening the hold, and are used 
mainly in climbing. (This entire eversible portion of the foot may 
1 The foot of the fly: its structure and action, etc., by Tuffen West, Part I. Trans. 
Linn. Soc., London, XXIII, 1862, Pis. 41-43. 
2 Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Banes und der Funktion der Jnsektenbeine. Inaugu- 
ral-Dissertation von Fried. Dahl, Berlin, 1884, 8vo, p. 50, Taf. xiil. Archiv fur Naturge- 
schichte, 50 Yahrg., 146-192 (see also articles by Zimmermacher and Dewitz). 
