Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . seen,together with the slight transverse hinge on which the wingswhen furled are doubled up so as to lie under the elytra. Very slender are these hinges, looking to the casual observermi rely like a fine continuous nervure running nearly parallelwith the edges of the wing; and it is not until a tolerablypowerful glass is brought to bear on them that their real cha- WING OF THE EARWIG. 281 racter is seen. Needs be that they must be so delicate, for thewings to which they are applied are t
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . seen,together with the slight transverse hinge on which the wingswhen furled are doubled up so as to lie under the elytra. Very slender are these hinges, looking to the casual observermi rely like a fine continuous nervure running nearly parallelwith the edges of the wing; and it is not until a tolerablypowerful glass is brought to bear on them that their real cha- WING OF THE EARWIG. 281 racter is seen. Needs be that they must be so delicate, for thewings to which they are applied are themselves of almost in-credible delicacy. They are too delicate even to be called gauzy;and while they have all the lovely prismatic colouring of thesoap-bubble, look scarcely less fragile. By far the strongestpart of the wing is the principal hinge, as from it diverge all thelesser hinges on which the wings are folded. In the illustration this part of the wing may be seen justbeyond the ends of the elytra, and when the wings are closedthe hinge still projects, and, as has been already stated, is very. Fig. 140.—Forfieesila Americana.(Dark brown.) conspicuous. When examined with a lens, the shape of theprincipal hinge is seen to bear some resemblance to that of acocked hat turned upside down, the hollow occupying the centre,and apparently forming a cavity in which the ends of thesupplementary hinges can meet. This fine insect belongs toSouth America, and the specimens in the British Museum werebrought from Jamaica. In the British Museum there are many unnamed species offoreign Earwigs. One, which comes from Bio de Janeiro, islong, light brown, and slender, with such long legs that it looksvery much like a Daddy-long-legs without its wings. Another,a small species which was brought from Tejuca, is entirelyblack, with the exception of a yellow patch in the Tejucan Earwig, much larger than the preceding species,is dark chestnut-brown, with the exception of the win
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
