The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 05 (of 10)Sedgwick, Adam
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 05 (of 10)
Sedgwick, Adam
Animals
The vena dividens is of great importance, as it marks off the anal or
axillary field, which in both tegmen and wing has a different system of
minor veins from what obtains in the rest of the organ; the veins being in
the anterior region abundantly branching and dichotomous (Fig. 132), while
in the anal field there is but little furcation, though the nervures
converge much at the base. The mediastinal gives off minor veins towards
the front only, the radial gives off veinlets at first towards the front,
but nearer the tip of the wings sends off minor veins both backwards and
forwards. The infra-median or ulnar vein is very variable; it is frequently
{226}abbreviated, and on the whole is of subordinate importance to the
other three. These latter thus form four chief areas or fields, viz.—1,
mediastinal or marginal; 2, scapular or radial; 3, median; and 4, anal.
These nervures and divisions may be traced in a large number of existing
and fossil Blattidae, but there are forms existing at present which it is
difficult to reduce to the same plan. In _Euthyrhapha_, found in the
Pacific Islands, the hind wings are long and project beyond the tegmina,
and have a very peculiar arrangement of the nervures; the species of
_Holocampsa_ also possess abnormal alar organs, while the structure of
these parts in _Diaphana_ (Fig. 122) is so peculiar that Brunner wisely
refrains from attempting to homologise their nervures with those of the
more normal Blattidae. The alar organs are frequently extremely different
in the two sexes of the same species of Blattidae, and the hind wing may
differ much from the tegmen as regards degree of departure from the normal.
So that it is not a matter for surprise that the nervures in different
genera cannot be satisfactorily homologised.
[Illustration: FIG. 122.—_Diaphana fieberi._ Brazil. A, The Insect, natural
size; B, tegmen, and C, wing, magnified. (After Brunner.)]
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