Guide to the Exhibited Series of Insects |
Common terms and phrases
abdomen Acridium peregrinum Africa antennæ ants Aptera attached basal beetles body British burrowing Butterflies cabinet Caddis-fly capsule caterpillar cells cerci Cockroaches cocoons Coleoptera colour common cover coxæ Crickets curious Diptera Dorylus Dragon-flies Earwigs enlarged exhibited in Table-case female femur flea flies found in Drawers front and hind front legs front pair front wings gallery galls genera genus Gryllida head free held roof-like hind pair hind wings HYMENOPTERA incomplete metamorphoses insects large number larva larvæ leathery leaves the egg Lepidoptera live Long-horned Locusts males mandibles Mantids maxillæ May-flies mesothorax mesothorax and metathorax metathorax Moths mouth Museum nearly nests built neuration Neuroptera ORTHOPTERA perfect insect Photographed from specimens prothorax pupa queens remarkable resemble rest segments shown in Table-case SIALIDA slender sometimes species Springtails Sub-Order Table table-case 51 tarsi terminate thorax thorax is compact three joints Thysanura tibia trees TRICHOPTERA Vespa Wall-case wasps west side wingless insect worker
Popular passages
Page 19 - ... trochanter Leg of a Mantis. the fly is caught between the spines on the tibiae and femora. This curious structure of the front legs (fig. 18) is the chief character of this family. It will be noted that the front coxse are very long, which enables the leg to be thrown forwards. There is a row...
Page 39 - Ar/rion, both larvae and perfect insects, differing but little from those of the present day. Some large species have also been found as far back as the Lower Lias. The remains of an enormous insect, Meganeura monyi, measuring two feet in expanse of wings has been found in the Carboniferous strata. It has four equal wings, and is evidently not far removed from the Dragon-flies. The neuration of the wings differs, however, in some important characters, and the shape of the body, so far as can be seen,...
Page 5 - They breathe by means of trachece or air tubes distributed through the body, but opening externally by means of orifices, called spiracles, placed at the sides of the body. They have six legs, which are attached respectively to the three portions or segments of which the thorax is composed. The head has two antennae. The majority are provided with two pairs of wings, but some have only one pair, and many have none. The nervous system consists of two parallel cords down the middle of the lower surface...
Page 32 - ... lutaria). Enlarged. numerous joints. The prothorax is rather large. The front and hind wings are of different shape, held roof -like when at rest, the hind ones ample and folded when not in use. The tarsi have five joints. Their metamorphoses are complete. The eggs of the common British Alder-fly, Sialis lutaria, are laid on blades of grass, etc., generally near water. The larva (fig. 32) as soon as it leaves the egg...
Page 31 - ... metamorphoses. The head is slightly imbedded in the prothorax, with long, slender antennae composed of very numerous joints. The hind wings are larger than the front ones, held horizontally over the back when at rest, with the inner portion of the hind pair folded. The tarsi have three joints. The larva live in water, feeding on decayed vegetable matter, but some are carnivorous.
Page 1 - Rhodites eglanterice, nervosus and rosic (23, 25, 27). The reason why these three insects, which are so much alike that they require an expert to separate them, produce such different galls has never been satisfactorily explained. The series of galls made by Gall-flies (Cynipidce, 29-47) is particularly deserving of careful attention. To understand the series of oak galls (29-43), it must be borne in mind that the males only exist in alternate generations, and that the females which appear in the...
Page 24 - The males of the majority of the winged species produce a chirping sound. This is produced in the same way as in the Crickets, but the drum is at the base of the wing, and is more developed in the right wing ; the left wing bears the file or bow and is always uppermost (fig. 22). In Ephippiger and a few allied genera both sexes are provided with a sounding apparatus.
Page 51 - Some Social Wasps build their nests without covering, others are enclosed. Among those built without cover are those of Polistes and Icaria. In the wall-case are examples of the flat nests built in trees by species of Polistes (341-355). It will be observed that these are suspended by a stalk from the centre of the nest (fig. 52). The species of Icaria build somewhat similar nests...
Page 51 - Close by these are two nests built by a species of Ischnogaster. They were found attached to roots on an overhanging bank in Borneo by the late Mr. J. Whitehead (445). The form of the entrance with its open-work at the back should be noticed (fig. 50). Other somewhat similar nests from Ceylon, formed by another species, will be found in Table-Case 52 (fig.
Page 22 - One vein is file-like on the under side, and this plays like a bow on a raised part of the margin of the drum and causes the well-known sound (1209, 1213). In the male Harpinus flight is sacrificed to this power of producing sound, the hind wings are absent, and the front pair are converted into a drum. Most of the species burrow in the ground, or live under stones or in caves. Nemeobius sylvestris, found in the New Forest and in woods, lives among dead leaves.