The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North AmericaHolland, W. J. (William Jacob)
Science
The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America
Holland, W. J. (William Jacob)
Butterflies -- North America
_The Head._--The head is globular, its breadth generally exceeding
its length. The top is called the _vertex_; the anterior portion,
corresponding in location to the human face, is called the _front_.
Upon the sides of the head are situated the large _compound eyes_,
between which are the _antennæ_, or "feelers," as they are sometimes
called. Above the mouth is a smooth horny plate, the _clypeus_. The
_labrum_, or upper lip, is quite small. On both sides of the mouth
are rudimentary _mandibles_, which are microscopic objects. The true
suctorial apparatus is formed by the _maxillæ_, which are produced in
the form of semi-cylindrical tubes, which, being brought together and
interlocking, form a complete tube, which is known as the
_proboscis_, and which, when not in use, is curled up spirally,
looking like a watch-spring. At the upper end of the proboscis, in
the head, is a bulb-like enlargement, in the walls of which are
inserted muscles which have their origin on the inner wall of the
head. When these muscles contract, the bulb-like cavity is enlarged,
a vacuum is produced, and the fluids in the cup of the flower flow
up the proboscis and into the bulb. The bulb is also surrounded by
muscles, which, when contracting, compress it. The external opening
of the tube has a flap, or valve, which, when the bulb is compressed,
closes and causes the fluid in it to flow backward into the gullet
and the stomach. The arrangement is mechanically not unlike that in a
bulb-syringe used by physicians. The process of feeding in the case
of the butterfly is a process of pumping honeyed water out of the
flowers into the stomach. The length of the proboscis varies; at its
base and on either side are placed what are known as the maxillary
palpi, which are very small. The lower lip, or _labium_, which is
also almost obsolete in the butterflies, has on either side two
organs known as the _labial palpi_, which consist of three joints. In
the butterflies the labial palpi are generally well developed, though
in some genera they are quite small. The antennæ of butterflies are
always provided at the extremity with a club-shaped enlargement, and
because of this clubbed form of the antennæ the entire group are
known as the _Rhopalocera_, the word being compounded from the Greek
word (ῥοπαλον), which means a _club_, and the word (_κερας_) which
means a _horn_.
[Illustration FIG. 32.--Interior view of head of milkweed butterfly:
_cl_, clypeus; _cor_, cornea of the eye; _oe_, oesophagus, or gullet;
_fm_, frontal muscle; _dm_, dorsal muscles; _lm_, lateral muscles; _pm_,
muscles moving the palpus (Burgess).]
[Illustration FIG. 33.--Labial palpus of _Colias_, magnified 10
diameters.]
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