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 markings of the scales, both of Synaptera and Lepidoptera, are very
elaborate, consisting of raised lines, ridges, or striæ with transverse
ridges between. “The striæ of the transparent scales of Micropteryx are
from about 500 to 300 to the millimetre, varying in different species.
The opaque scales of Morpho, which show metallic reflections, have about
1400 striæ to the millimetre.” (Kellogg.)
The primary use of scales, as observed by Kellogg, is to protect the
body, as seen in Synaptera and Lepidoptera. A nearly as important use is
the production of colors and patterns of colors and markings, while in
certain butterflies certain scales function as the external openings of
dermal scent-glands, and they afford in some cases (as first claimed by
Kettelhoit in 1860) generic and specific characters. Spuler has shown
that the scales are strengthened by internal chitinous pillars. Burgess
has observed in the scales of _Danais plexippus_ that the under surface
of the scales is usually smooth, or provided with few and poorly
developed ridges, and this has been confirmed by Spuler and by Mayer
(Fig. 226).
In the irised and metallic scales the ridges, says Spuler, are not
divided into teeth, and they converge at the base to the pedicel and
also toward the end of the scale (Micropteryx), or end in a single
process beyond the middle (the brass-colored scales of _Plusia
chrysitis_).
The arrangement of the scales on the wings is, in the generalized moths,
irregular; in the more specialized forms they are arranged in bands
forming groups, and in the most specialized Lepidoptera they are more
thickly crowded, overlapping each other and inserted in regular rows
crossing the wings, these rows either uniting with each other or running
parallel. (Spuler.) The scattered irregular arrangement seen in
Micropteryx is also characteristic of the Trichoptera and of
Amphientomum.
[Illustration:
FIG. 223.—Portion of a longitudinal section through one of the young
pupal wings of a summer pupa of _Vanessa antiopa_: _s_, young scale;
_leu. cy._, leucocyte; _mbr. pr._, ground membrane; _prc_,
hypodermis-cells.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 224.—Portion of a longitudinal section through one wall only of
the pupal wing of a specimen slightly older than that of Fig. 223;
_s_, older scale.
]
=Development of the scales.=—The mode of origin of the scales was first
worked out by Semper in 1886, who stated that in the wing of the pupal
Sphinx and Saturnia they are seen, in sections, to arise from large
roundish cells just under the hypodermis and which have a projection
which passes out between the hypodermis (his “epidermis”) cells,
expanding into a more or less spherical vesicle, the latter being the
first indication of the future scale. He observed that the scales are
not all formed at once, but arise one after another, so that on one and
the same wing the scales are in different stages of development.
[Illustration:
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