Novel Proboscis.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20328, 11 June 1934, Page 6

Novel Proboscis.

Nature Notes.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. r pilE RICH COSTUME of a large moth caught in a room by Mr E. 11. Lee, Waipawa, Hawke's Bay. so fascinated him that he watched it for hours. On putting out honey and water for it. he was surprised to see it project a long, thread-like proboscis and suck th£ honey up. Having satisfied its appetite, Mr Lee states, it folded its proboscis into a small niche, and the proboscis disappeared between two small yellow jaws. The moth, Dasypodia selenophora, belongs to a great family, the Noctuidae, each iViember of which usually has a very well developed proboscis. This is in the form of 4 a tubte. It is not a separate organ, but an extension of the two lower jaws, greatly drawn out, pressed together at the edges, but pulling apart at the owner's will.

The proboscis of a moth or butterfly is much less complex than the proboscis of a bee. It does not, by complicated details and delicacy of structure, create *o much surprise and admiration. Near its tip there are minute structures, which mav be used to tear the delicate tissues of blossoms. Suction is performed by a special apparatus, including a tiny bag and muscles.

Sir J. Arthur Thomson. of Aberdeen, found in the proboscis of the lepidoptera a beautiful structure, with all the marks of efficiency, although in many butterflies it seems to be cf very little use. lie does not deny that the proboscis often is part of an important suction pump; but he points out that there are butterflies which regard feeding as unimportant. As caterpillars they were voracious. In the perfect state of a higher life, they are above the desires of the flesh. A butterfly that takes little nourishment may have an elaborate proboscis. In this case, members of the species, in ancient days, may have sipped nectar from flowers, but gradually left to the caterpillars the work of laying up stores of nourishment, while the sucking organs, now useless, are retained in the insects’ perfect stage.