A Text-book of Entomology: Including the Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology and Metamorphoses of Insects for Use in Agricultural and Technical Schools and Colleges as Well as by the Working EntomologistPackard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Science
A Text-book of Entomology: Including the Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology and Metamorphoses of Insects for Use in Agricultural and Technical Schools and Colleges as Well as by the Working Entomologist
Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Insects
The main tracheæ throw off on both sides a number of secondary branches
showing at their end a cell with an intracellular tracheal structure;
these accessory tracheæ afterwards branch out. The accessory or
transverse tracheæ often disappear, though in some moths they remain
permanently. Fig. 137 _tr_{2}_ represents these secondary veins in the
edge of the fore wing of _Laverna vanella_, arising from a main trachea
(_tr_) passing through vein I (_v_), two of the twigs extending to the
centre, showing that the latter has no homology with a true vein. Only
rarely and in strongly developed thick folds are the transverse tracheæ
provided with a chitinous thickening, as for example in _Cossus
ligniperda_. Since from such accessory tracheæ the transverse veins in
lepidopterous wings are developed, we can recognize in them the
homologies of the net-veins in reticulated venations. There is no
sharply defined difference between reticulated and non-reticulated
venations; no genetic difference exists between the two kinds of
venation, since there occur true Blattidæ both with and without a
reticulated venation (Spuler).
In the fore wings of Odonata, Psocina, Mantispidæ, and most Hymenoptera
is an usually opaque colored area between the costal edge and the median
vein, called the _pterostigma_.
In shape the wings are either triangular or linear oval, and at the
front edge the main veins are closer together than elsewhere, thus
strengthening the wings and affording the greatest resistance to the air
in making the downward stroke during flight. It is noticeable that when
the veins are in part aborted from partial disuse of the wings, they
disappear first from the hinder and middle edge, those on the costal
region persisting. This is seen in the wings of Embiidæ (Oligotoma),
Cynipidæ, Proctotrupidæ, Chalcids, ants, etc.
The front edge of the wing is called the costal, its termination in the
outer angle of the wing is called the apex; the outer edge (termen) is
situated between the apex and the inner or anal angle, between which and
the base of the wing is the inner or internal edge.
While in Orthoptera, dragon-flies, Termitidæ, and Neuroptera the wings
are not attached to each other, in many Lepidoptera they are loosely
connected by the loop and frenulum, or in Hymenoptera by a series of
strong hooks. These hooks are arranged, says Newport, “in a slightly
twisted or spiral direction along the margin of the wing, so as to
resemble a screw, and when the wings are expanded attach themselves to a
little fold on the posterior margin of the anterior wing, along which
they play very freely when the wings are in motion, slipping to and fro
like the rings on the rod of a window curtain.”
At the base of the hind wings of Trichoptera and in the lepidopterous
Micropteryx there is an angular fold (_jugum_) at the base of each wing
(Fig. 138); that of the anterior wings is retained in Eriocephala and
Hepialidæ.
[Illustration:
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