Copy 2

On the history and natural arrangement of insects / By William Swainson and W.E. Shuckard.

  • Swainson, William, 1789-1855.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the history and natural arrangement of insects / By William Swainson and W.E. Shuckard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    389/420 (page 379)
    stances, as the Scatophage and Sapromyze ; others, as the Ortalide and Tephritide, deposit their eggs upon living vegetables and plants, and thus produce excres- cences like galls. The Dolichocere live upon aquatic plants ; Calobata has the power of walking upon the sur- face of pools; and the Actore frequent the sea-shores, where they live upon fuci and marine rejectamenta. (341.) The sixth and last family of the Diptera contains the Pupipara. These have, for separative cha- racters, antenne with but one distinct joint, placed in front of the lateral extremities of the head; and a mouth withouta proboscis,—the function of which isexecuted by two sete, which formasheath or tube. They constitute two tribes,—1. The Coriacee; and, 2. The Phthiromye. The first are distinguished by having a head of a moderate size, and usually wings. We have before adverted to the remarkable circumstance of their young undergoing its states of larva and pupa within the abdomen of the parent ; and as matured pupe they are born. They re- semble the lice, living as parasites upon animals and birds ; and although, when winged, they are not skilful flyers, yet, in their native habitat, upon the skin of animals, they have considerable activity, running about, but chiefly laterally. Belonging to the first group, and winged, we find Hippobosea, or the horse-fly; Strebla, inhabiting the bat; Ornithobia and Ornithomya, upon a variety of birds; and Anapera (Owypterum Leach) and Stenopteryx, exclusively upon swallows. Leptotena has but rudimentary wings, and inhabits the deer ; and Mal- lophaga, which is totally apterous, the sheep. The se- cond tribe, the Phthiromye, contains but one genus,— Nyeteribia—animals whose situation is indicated as being proximate to the Hippoboscide, by the structure of their mouth and the identity of transformations. These in- sects greatly resemble spiders ; and thus indicate the con- tiguity of the Arachnide, although their structure is completely analogous to that of the hexapod Insecta. A particular detail of this would exceed the limits we are restricted to; and we shall therefore merely notice that