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Psyche 4:218, 1883.
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218 PSYCHE. [October-Detembtr 1%.
HEAD OF LARVAL MUSCA - PRELIMINARY NOTE. BY GEORGE MACLOSKIE, PRINCETON, N. J.
The mscidae are usually said to have and the longitudinal and transverse mus- headless larvae. The real state of cles are much us they shall always be. matters however is that their head is , 3. The '^hooks", or forked distal buried in their thorax, to be timist out part, appear to be the precursors of the at will duringlarva-hood, or permanent- upper fork of the adult disti-proboscis : ly in the adult. Some years ago I spent
they have also inferior processes repre- fruitless lime in attempting to investi- senting the inferior fork of the same. gate this structure; but recent research- Perhaps tliese hooks are the mandibles. es on the head and proboscis of the adult 4. The armature of the pharynx have enabled me to return to the
attack consists of a chitinous sheath lining its with greater success. Mr. Walter M. lumen. On the floor of this are eight Ri~nkin has cut for me some excellent longitudinal bars, which are found on transverse sections of the head of the cross-section to be hollow, each with a hrva ofMuscacaesar, and by their help longitudinal slit opening towards the as well as
bv teasing I have got the lumen of the pharynx, following results. 5. On tracing the pharynx-arma- I.
The head has adouble skeleton,
Hire to its anterior extremity we find
the one independent of the other : ( i ) that it terminates abruptly by a rim
a large dark-colored case, figured by
which supports a nuniber of teeth at thg Weisman~i,~ consisting of proximal, roots of the fongitudinai bars referred mid-, anti distant parts, the distant part to. Here we have evidence that the being the well-known 4ihooks" (really a longitudinal bars of the lai-va represent bifurcated piece) ; (2) a chi tilions asma- the pseudotracheae of the adult ; they tare lining the pharynx : outside of the open by a longslit, and have transverse pl~arynx-wall (therefore organically in semi-rings so as to produce a resemblance the head) are inuscfes which join it to to tracheae, all as in the pseudoiracheite. the larger, dark-colored case. 6, Hence the slit tubes which line 2, The dark-colored part represents the pharynx of the larva are identical the fulcrum, mid-segment, and the fork- with the pseudotracheae of the adult ; ed distal supports of the proboscis of the and the swollen ^labella" of the disti-
adult. The relation of parts is the proboscis of the adult are the everted same as in the adult : the salivary duct, stomodaeud, whilst its supporting forks made hy the union of the ducts of the are probably the mandibles. paired salivary glands, enters the mouth 7.
The muscuiar apparatus for open-
at the mid-proboscis as in the adult,
iiig the pharynx is as in the adult. Long muscles descend from the walls of the
1 Zeiischr. C. wins zoo!., ~863-tS66.
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October-December 1884.1 PSTcm. 21 9
fulcrum to the roof of the pharynx, so
as by their contraction to raise the roof, to enlarge the cavity, and to turn it into a forcing p~imp. When the pharynx
is not so distended its roof is arched up- wards and its lumen on cross-section
merely a transverse slit. Above it-
within the hollow of the arch-is a
system of radiating' muscles which in-
crease the curvature of the pharynx-
roof and so close it unless when
antagonised by the descending muscles.
8.
Except by the muscles, and at its
inferior margin, the fulcrum has no or-
ganic connection with the pharynx. As
the fulcrum transverses the length of the head, free externally of the outer wall of the head, and free internally of the pro- boscis which pierces it though separated from it, and as it is enclosed by muscles on both sides, it must be endoskeletal
in its nature, i. e., an ingrowth from the exoskeleton, like the enclophragms of
the thorax or the endocranium of the
head of other insects.
12 Dec. 1884.
NOTES ON SOME COLEOPTERA TAKEN IN SOUTH LOUISIANA. BY CHARLES HENRY TYLER TOWNSEND, CONSTANTINE, MICH. The whole of Louisiana has been
included by Leccnte in the southern
province of his great Atlantic di~trict.~ It would seem however, upon further
consideration of the fauna, that the
southern strip parallel with the coast
should be connectecl with his "s~ibtrop- ical province, including the seacoast of Texas" (see 111xp by Leconte) ; which,
moreover, as he says, "belongs more
propeily to the eastern province of the
tropical zoological district of Me~ico."~ It was in what might be called the sub-
tropical province of the seacoast of
Louisiana (being' a continuation of the
coast strip embraced in the eastern prov- ince of Mexico) that these notes were
1 LECONTE, J : L. The coleoptera of Kansas and east- ern New Mexico; with map showing the entomological provinces of North America. Wash., Smithsonian insti- tittion, 1859, p. iv.
2 LOC. cit., p. iii-iv.
collected, and the observations here
given made.
It will be borne in mind that at the
time of my visit, 29 March to 21 June
1884, a large tract of country near Bay- ou la Fourche was overflowed from the
great crevasse of March the same year.
For the identification of most of the
species to which these notes refer, I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. G : H :
Horn.
The cici7zdelidae seemed to be near-
ly absent or of local occurrence in sout11- ern Louisiana, and not to frequent the
low lands of that part of the state. I
saw only two specimens of this family
(one larva of Tetrach caroZi?ta5 and
one Cicindela re$anda) in the latitude
of ~ e & Orleans. Afterwards I saw
C. torttiosa with C. g~ej%mda at the
mouth of Red River. Though I visit-
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