CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



of function in a given part. Notwithstanding this difficulty 

 we know that many organs are truly vestigial, and such 

 organs may be found in animals of almost any group. 



Most insects are capable of flight and possess to this end 

 a pair or, more commonly, two pairs of wings. Nevertheless 

 many insects have wings that are entirely useless. Thus the 

 male of the gipsy moth has well-developed wings and flies 

 as other moths do; but the female, though she has fully 

 formed wings, makes no use of them. When she emerges 

 from her cocoon she creeps a short distance away and deposits 



^ B 



Pig. 2. — A, Claws at the sides of the vent of 

 a python, representing vestigial hind legs; B, 

 Skeleton supporting the claws. After Romanes. 



her eggs, but without flight. Her wings are functionless and 

 in that sense vestigial. In many other insects the wings are 

 not only useless but are relatively small. Examples are seen 

 in certain chalcids, small, almost microscopic wasp-like crea- 

 tures that are often parasitic in other insects. Wheeler has 

 recently described an Australian ant, Monomorimn suhap- 

 terum (Fig. 1), in which the wings of the female are about 

 half the size of normal wings and are quite without function. 

 Such wings are clearly vestigial. 



[36] 



