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
[Illustration:
FIG. 154.—Stages in the growth of the wings of the nymph of _Termes
flavipes_: _A_, young; _a_, a wing enlarged. _B_, older nymph;
_b_, fore wing; _n_, a vein. _C_, wings more advanced;—_D_,
mature.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 155.—Wings of nymph of Psocus.
]
“After the last moult, however, when the supply of moisture is very
much reduced in the wing-pouches, which are contracted at the
bottom, their two layers become closely united, and afterward grow
into one single, solid wing-membrane.
“These thick-walled blood-tubes arising above and beneath the upper
and lower membrane of the wing are the veins of the wings; the
development of the creased wings in the pupa of butterflies is
exactly like that of cockroaches and bugs. The difference is only
that the folds of integument furnishing the wings with an ample
store of material for their construction reach in a relatively
shorter time, that is the space of time between two moults, the same
extent that they would otherwise attain only in the course of
several periods of growth in the ametabolous insects.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 156.—Nymph of _Aphrophora permutata_, with enlarged view of the
wings and the veins: _pro_, pronotum; _sc_, mesoscutum; 1_ab_, 1st
abdominal segment.
]
Ignorant of Graber’s paper, we had arrived at the same result, after an
examination of the early nymph-stages of the cockroach, as well as the
locusts, Termites, and various Hemiptera. In all these forms it is
plainly to be seen that the wings are simply expansions, either
horizontal or partly vertical (where, as in locusts, etc., the body is
compressed, and the meso- and metanota are rounded downwards), of the
hinder and outer edge of the meso- and metanotum. As will be seen by
reference to the accompanying figures, the wings are notal (tergal)
outgrowths from the dorsal arch of the two hinder segments of the
thorax. At first, as seen in the young pupal cockroach (Fig. 152) and
locust (Fig. 153, also Figs. 154 and 156) the rudiments of the wings are
continuous with the notum. Late in nymphal life a suture and a
hinge-joint appear at the base of the wing, and thus there is some
movement of the wing upon the notum; finally, the tracheæ are well
developed in the wings, and numerous small sclerites are differentiated
at the base of the wing, to which the special muscles of flight are
attached, and thus the wings, after the last nymphal moult, have the
power of flapping, and of sustaining the insect in the air; they thus
become true organs of flight.
It is to be observed, then, that the wings in all hemimetabolous insects
are outgrowths from the notum, and not from the flanks or pleurum of the
thorax. There is, then, no structure in any other part of the body with
which they are homologous.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account