50 



HARDWICKE'S S C IE N CE-GOS S IP. 



[March ], 1870. 



Perhaps the last order to which the reader would 

 look for ail apterous specimen would he that of the 

 Lejndoptera, the gay butterflies and moths ; never- 

 theless they have their share of mutilated females ; 

 at least, if the wings are not always wanting, they 

 are reduced to such a rudimentary condition as to 

 be utterly unserviceable. Examples of wingless 

 moths are found in the Pale Brindled Beauty 

 (PHgalia), the Belted Beauty (Kyssia), the 

 Mottled Umber {JErannis), the Scarce Umber 

 {L«nipctia), the Spring Usher {Anisopteryx), the 

 "Winter Moth {Cheimatobia), &c. These all belong 

 to the family of Loopers or Geometrids. The 

 Arctiids supply us with the Vapourer (Oregyia) ; 

 and lastly we have the most curious of all in the 

 Psychids, the Brown Muslin {Psyche), the Chimney- 

 sweep [Fumed), and the Large Chimney-sweep 

 [Sterrhopteryx). Here too we have a phenomenon 

 nowhere else met with, of females, not merely 

 without wings, but without antenna; — nay, more 

 Chinese than the ladies of the Celestial Empire, 

 Nature has forgotten to give them legs, so that they 

 are mere wormlike grubs, which spend all their days 

 perched on the cocoon from which they originally 

 issued. 



The next order, the Hymenoptera, contains the 

 Ant tribe, among which we find three forms, — the 

 males, which are always winged ; the females, winged 

 only at particular seasons aud for a limited period ; 

 and lastly the workers, or neuters, which are entirely 

 wingless. In another tribe, apparently a connecting 

 link between the ants and wasps, the Mutillids, in 

 which there are no neuters, the females are wingless. 

 Cynips aptera, one of the gall flies, the female only 

 of which is known, is also wingless. It is found on 

 moist ground at the foot of oak-trees, on the roots 

 of which it makes provision for its young. 



Reasoning a priori, one would suppose that an 

 order in which the normal number of wings is two 

 only, is more likely to furnish us with apterous 

 members than those in which four wings have to 

 be disposed of. This, however, is far from being 

 the case ; the Dipters, or flies, the solitary two-winged 

 order, being singularly complete as regards their 

 organs of flight. There is said to be one instance — 

 but I know nothing of it — among the true flies, in 

 the person of Apterina pedestris, nearly related to 

 Borborus, an inhabitant of North Germany ; in this 

 insect the wings are rudimentary, and the halters 

 or balancers indistinct. Chionea araneoides is an 

 anomaly, another wingless denizen of Northern 

 Germany, which takes its pastime on the surface of 

 the snow in early spring. 



The Eleas and the Louseflies swell the number of 

 apterous dipters ; but in good truth they have small 

 claim to the position they occupy. The former 

 (Aphaniptera), as every one knows who has tried to 

 catch one, have wonderful legs, but not a pretence 

 to a wing. The latter (Homaloptera or Ptipipara), 



all parasitic in their habits, are divided as regards 

 their powers of flight ; some, as the forest-flies 

 (Hippobosca), darting through the air at a consider- 

 able speed; while in the Sheep-tick (Melophrtgi's), 

 the Bat-tick (Nycterobia), the Bee-tick (Braida)., 

 and some others, wings are altogether wanting. 



Having roughly analyzed the Metabolous section 

 of the Insect Kingdom (or that in which the meta- 

 morphoses of larva, pupa, aud imago are complete), 

 let us cast a glance at the Ametabola, in which the 

 parents and their young differ but little in general 

 appearance. 



It comprises the three remaining orders, the first 

 of which, the Neuroptera, contains the important 

 family of Termites, or White Ants : the stages of 

 increase in these animals are not very accurately 

 made out ; but it is certain that the females, and 

 also some other individuals, are apterous. Here too 

 we meet with the singular little Boreus, nearly 

 related to our Lobster-fly (Panorpa), in which the 

 female is wingless, and the male has the merest 

 rudiments of a wing ; also the Psocids, tiny soft- 

 bodied creatures, of which the genera Atropos and 

 Clotldlla are without the means of flying. 



The Ortliopterous order is crowded with wingless 

 members, at the head of which, conspicuous for 

 strangeness of form and singularity of habits, stand 

 the Spectres or Stick insects of the warmer regions 

 of the globe. Following these are numbers of 

 insects destined never to "cleave the liquid air," 

 far too numerous to mention in detail. The female 

 Cockroach (Periplaneta orientatis) has but the first 

 beginnings of awing. The large families of Spring- 

 tails {Thysanura) and Bird-lice (Maltopkaga) are 

 utterly destitute of any approach to that organ. 

 Of Apterygida, a wingless representative of the 

 Earwig tribe ; of Aptinothrips, which hold the same 

 relation to the Physapods ; and of BatracJiotetri.r 

 among the Grasshoppers and Locusts, I know 

 nothing but the names. 



Last of all, the Hemiptera furnish their contingent, 

 most of them only too well known. I allude to 

 those disgusting parasites, the Bed-bug {Acanthia), 

 and the Louse (Pediculus), each with a goodly set 

 of relations ; the whole " voracious crew " being 

 entirely wingless. Next to these we have the Plant- 

 lice {ApJiids), which are wingless under certain cir- 

 cumstances ; and finally the Scale iusects (Coccids) 

 of which the males alone are provided with wings, 

 and these are reduced to two. 



Havre. 



Flora of Cornwall.— Mr. J. W. N. Keys is 

 publishing a Flora of Devon and Cornwall in the 

 "Transactions of the Plymouth Institution and 

 Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society." It 

 is at present published as far as Scrophulariacece.— 

 James Britten. 



