Abstract
IN recently characterising the pupa of Sphinx catalpæ, Boisd., for my report as entomologist to the Department of Agriculture, I was struck with the occurrence on the anterior border of each of the larger movable abdominal joints (viz., abdominal joints 5, 6, and 7) of a peculiar elongate concavity, a structure not mentioned by Westwood, Burmeister, Kirby and Spence, Girard, Clemens, Harris, Graber, or any modern author whom I have been able to consult. There is an approach to it in the pupa of Ceratomia amyntor, and it occurs in that of Sphinx harrisii in similar position and form as in S. catalpæ. In Macrosila 5-maculata it is somewhat above the spiracles, and that on the fifth abdominal joint has a second larger ridge running around it posteriorly. It does not occur in any of the species of the genera Sesia, Thyreus, Darapsa, Deilephila, Philampelus, and Smerinthus in my collection. It has no internal connection with the respiratory or circulatory systems, and its function is probably sound-producing by friction with the posterior margin of the preceding joint. This organ may, in fact, throw some light on the method by which the noise is produced which the pupa of Sphinx atropos is capable of. Unfortunately, I have no pupæ of that species for examination.
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RILEY, C. Possible Sound Organs in Sphingid Pupæ. Nature 26, 366 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026366c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026366c0
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