1201 



VERTEBRATA. 



VESPIDzE. 



1203 



Neural Spine 



.. Ncurapophysis 



( Hcurapophys's 



Hwmapophysis 



Hsemal Spine 

 Ideal Typical Vertebra. 



The autogenous processes generally circumscribe holes about the 

 centrum, which in the chain of vertebra form canals. The most 

 constant and extensive canal is that formed by the neurapophyses 

 for the lodgment of the trunk of the nervous system, and marked n in 

 the diagram. The second canal is formed by the hsemapophyses, and 

 is below the centrum, and embraces the central circulating organ (A), 

 the heart, and the large trunks of the vascular system. At the sides 

 of the centrum, most commonly seen in the cervical region, rise two 

 other canals, formed by the three lateral elements of the vertebra, 

 and these often embrace an artery and a nerve. Thus a typical or 

 perfect vertebra, with all its elements, presents four canals or perfora- 

 tions about a common centre ; such a vertebra is seen in the thorax of 

 man, and most of the higher forms of vertebrate animals, as in the 

 neck of many birds. In the tails of most reptiles and Mammalia the 

 hicmapophy.'es are articulated or anchylosed to the under part of the 

 centrum, space being needed there only for the caudal artery and 

 vein. But where the heart is to be lodged an expansion of the hsemal 

 arch takes place, analogous to that which occurs in the neural arches 

 when the nervous trunk assumes the form of a brain. 



In the same manner that the parts of the thorax, spinal column, and 

 skull may be traced to the elements above referred to, the parts of the 

 two pairs of locomotive organs with which all vertebrate animals are 

 endowed may be traced to a common plan iu the diverging append- 

 ages. These parts of all others are most subject to change, now 

 developed to an enormous extent, and again almost entirely disappear- 

 ing, according to the necessity of adapting the animal to its special 

 habits. With the exception of the posterior and anterior extremities, 

 these organs are developed only to a limited degree. It is through 

 the study of these appendages that the pectoral fins are seen to \>i 

 the homologues of the anterior extremities in the Reptiles, of the 

 wings in the Birds, of the fore legs in the majority of the Mammalia, 

 the flippers of Seals nnd Whales, and of the arms in Man. In like 

 manner the abdominal fins of Fishes are the homologues of the legs 

 in Birds, and of the posterior extremities of the Reptiles and Mam- 

 malia, and the legs in Man. These homologues include not only the 

 totality of these organs, but the individual parts, and the scapula, 

 clavicle, corocoid process, humerus, radius, ulna, carpal and ineta- 

 carpal bones, and phalanges, in the higher Mammalia and Man have 

 their homologues in the lower form of vertebrate animals. So with 

 the pelvic arch, with its ilium, ischium, pubis, fetaur, fibula, tibia, 

 t aigal and metatarsal bones, and phalanges. 



We have not space here to enter into the details of the application 

 of this general plan to the structure of the skeleton of the various 

 forma of vertebrate animals, but this has been done in a most 

 masterly manner by Professor Owen, in his ' Report on the Homo- 

 logics of the Vertebrate Skeleton,' published in the ' Transactions of 

 the British Association ' for 1846, and also subsequently in an inde- 

 pendent volume devoted to the same subject. This department of 

 anatomical inquiry is no longer a matter of ingenious hypothesis and 

 verbal speculation, but has been placed by this inquirer, through the 

 unerring principles of comparative anatomy and development, upon 

 the firmest basU, and may be regarded as an essential part of scientific 

 truth. 



VERTEBRATA. [MAMMALIA.] 



VERTICILLUS. [INFLORESCENCE.] 



VEIITI'GO, a genus of Gasteropodous Mollusca. The shell is 

 cylindrical!? fusiform, sinistral, hyaline; the aperture margined, 

 inuous, and denticulate on the inner edge ; the peristome somewhat 

 reflected. 



rerligo piuilla. Oieot Britain. 

 Thi< terrestrial genus is minute, and bears some resemblance to 



HAT. HIOT. DIV. TOU IV. 



Pupa ; but the shells are sinistral, or left-handed, to use the collector's 

 berrn, and of a glassy transparency. [HELICIDJ3.] 



VERUNA. [GRAPSUWR.] 



VERVAIN. [VEKBENA.] 



VESPERTILIO. [CHEIROPTERA.] 



VESPERTILIO'NID^E. [CHEIROPTERA."] 



VE'SPID^E, a family of Insects belonging to the order Hymen- 

 optera. It comprises the species of the genus Vespa of Liunccus, 

 of which the common Wasp and the Hornet are familiar examples. 

 They were formed into a family by Latreille, under the name of 

 Diploptera, afterwards changed into Diplopteryga by Kirby. They 

 form the third and last division of the first sub-section (Pm-dones), of 

 the second section (Aculeata) of Hymenoptera, in Westwood's revision 

 of Latreille's arrangement. When at rest they fold their wings 

 throughout their entire length, whence their distinctive appellation. 

 The wings of all the insects of the family have a similar neura- 

 tion, their eyes are lunate, and there are glands at the extremity 

 of the labrum. The fore wings have one marginal and three 

 perfect submarginal cells, with an incomplete terminal submargiual 

 cell. 



Whilst some of these characters are so peculiarly distinctive of the 

 Diplopteryga that they are not to be Been in any other insects of the 

 order, they, strange to say, do not at all indicate a community of 

 habits. Among the Wasps are insects of the most dissimilar habits ; 

 some solitary, others living in societies, some phytophagous, others 

 carnivorous. Such as are social rival the bees in the complicated 

 instincts which regulate their societies. At first sight these great 

 differences of manners would seem to point to a classification superior 

 to that founded on such unimportant characters as the folding of the 

 wings, &c. But when we find on further inquiry that the latter 

 apparently insignificant distinctions correspond to essential modifi- 

 cations of structure common to all the insects of the family, we are 

 led to conclude that among the Wasps, structure, and not economy, is 

 the real source of essential character. Some authors, laying greater 

 stress on habit than on structure, have been inclined to separate far 

 apart the Social from the Solitary Wasps; but the utmost to which 

 a separation can be admitted is that arrangement adopted by Mr. 

 Westwood, namely, the division of the Diplopteryga into two families, 

 the Eumcnidce and the Vespidce. 



Besides the characters already mentioned, the Wasps are distin- 

 guished by the form of the antenna), which are usually angled and 

 somewhat clavate at their extremities. Their tongues are trifid and 

 laciniated at the tips; the palpi are short and filiform ; the maxilUc 

 long and compressed ; their eyes are notched ; the thorax is entire. 

 The bodies of the Wasps are usually black, with yellow markings, the 

 males differing from the females in having the clypeus not marked 

 with yellow spots. They are naked, or but slightly hairy. The 

 abdomen is often pedunculated, and the females and neuters are pro- 

 vided with a powerful sting. Their legs are unprovided with apparatus 

 for the collection of pollen. 



The Solitary Wasps, each species of which comprises males and 

 females only, constitute the family Ewnenidce. The genera Enmencs 

 and Odynerws belong to it. Their peculiarities of organisation are 

 adaptations to their peculiarities of habit. Thus the mandibles form 

 a kind of rostrum, resembling that of the Fossores, for the purpose of 

 seizing and carrying off the insects on which they prey. The antenna; 

 are composed of 12 or 13 distinct joints, according to the sex, and are 

 pointed. The labrum is divided into four pilose sette, with glands at 

 their extremities ; the lateral ones narrow and pointed, the interme- 

 diate longer. The clypeus is oval or heart-shaped, and anteriorly more 

 or less truncate. The basal segment of the abdomen in the typical 

 species is elongated into a peduncle. Their larvsc are fleshy grubs, 

 with tubercles serving instead of feet. 



The habits of the Solitary Wasps are interesting. Rdauinur informs 

 us that the Odynerus murarius ( Vespa mwaria) of Linnaeus makes a 

 hole several inches deep in the sand, or in the sides of walls, con- 

 structing a tube of earthy paste, at first straight, and then curved at 

 its entrance. In this burrow it constructs its cells, and deposits in 

 the cavity of the interior cell from 8 to 12 little gre;n caterpillars, 

 arranging them spirally in layers above each other. In the midst of 

 these it deposits its eggs, then closes the mouth of the hole with the 

 materials of the tube, which it had used as a sort of scaffold. The 

 larvae when hatched feed upon the caterpillars. Mr. Westwood states 

 that the Odynerus Antilope lines its cells with mud, of which it carries 

 small round pellets into its burrow under its breast. Bouchd observes 

 that Odynerus Parietum stores up flies and other perfect insects, along 

 with caterpillars, for the food of its young. In the ' Gardener's Maga- 

 zine" for 1837 a, most remarkable instinct, displayed by a species of 

 Odynerus, is related by Mr. Westwood. The insect he describes stores 

 in its nest the leaf-rolling larva of a Tortrix, which it obtains by intro- 

 ducing its sting into the rolls of leaves, aud then running to the end 

 of the roll to catch the larva, which it rinds endeavouring to make its 

 escape from its unknown enemy. According to Geoffroy, the Eumma 

 coarctata constructs upon stems of heaths and other plants a spherical 

 nest of fine earth, which it fills with honey, and there deposits an egg. 

 In the first volume of the new series of the ' Magazine of Natural 

 History,' Mr. Shuckard gives an interesting history of a new British 

 Odynerus, 0. lasvipm, which builds its nest iu excavations made in the 



