Garden Pests in New Zealand: A Popular Manual for Practical Gardeners, Farmers and Schools — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Garden Pests in New Zealand: A Popular Manual for Practical Gardeners, Farmers and Schools
John Stuart Mill · en
The mouth parts of the worker honey-bee, for example, have the jaws
adapted for eating pollen and moulding wax for the comb; the accessory
jaws, however, are lengthened, though their palps are reduced to
mere vestiges in contrast with the elongated palps of the lower lip;
the most remarkable modification is that of the greatly elongated
tongue, with its spoon-like tip adapted for reaching nectar of flowers
having deep-seated nectaries. For the same purpose, the mouth parts
are modified in a moth (Fig. 3) to form a long proboscis, which lies
curled up in a spiral beneath the head when not in use; in this case
the proboscis is the modified accessory jaws, the remaining mouth
parts, with the exception of the well-developed palps of the lower lip,
being greatly reduced. In a blood-sucking insect, such as the female
mosquito, all the mouth parts are well developed, but are very delicate
and greatly lengthened and suited for piercing the skin. The greatest
modification is found in the blow-fly proboscis, which is a soft,
sucking tube, with no outward resemblance to the generalised plan,
except for the palps of the accessory jaws. The mouth parts of insects
(_e.g._, aphids) which feed on the nutrient sap of plants, just in
the same way as mosquitoes do on blood, are modified for puncturing
the tissues of plants; in such insects the upper lip is short, and
both pairs of palps are atrophied, but the jaws and accessory jaws are
greatly lengthened in the form of bristle-like stylets, which lie in
a groove along the equally lengthened lower lip (Fig. 3). The manner
in which insects feed is of great importance in controlling them with
insecticides, and the two types to bear in mind are those that chew
their food and those that suck the sap of plants, reached by puncturing
the tissues.
As already stated, the thorax consists of the three segments
immediately behind the head, and carries the organs of locomotion; its
three segments are distinct, and may be referred to, respectively, as
the fore, middle, and hind thorax. The cuticle of each thoracic segment
consists of a number of chitinised plates connected by membranous
areas; these plates are arranged in three series--the back or dorsal;
the lower or ventral, forming the sternum; and the lateral, or
side-pieces, connecting the dorsal and ventral ones.