178 



legs of a mole ; whence the species has been termed 

 Cancer gammarus talpa by Montague. The tail is 

 terminated by two long filaments. It is found 

 amongst marine plants. This genus may be regarded 

 as the type of the family Apseudidce. 



APTKNODYTES the Patagonian penguin. A 

 genus of aquatic birds inhabiting the sea, and the last 

 of a very peculiar and well marked family, which are 

 closely allied to the divers, but yet differ from them 

 in some particulars. The first of that family may be 

 considered as the common auk, or razor bill, or per- 

 haps the puffin, as both of these are excellent divers, 

 but have their legs placed far backwards, are very 

 bad walkers, and cannot stand but in an erect position, 

 supported on the whole length of the tarsi. After 

 the auk there is an intermediate genus, which used 

 to be classed along with this one, and of course called 

 by the same name ; but there are differences, espe- 

 cially in the structure of the bill, which render it more 

 advisable to separate them in a systematic arrange- 

 ment, though they are all popularly known by the 

 name of penguins. 



The generic characters of the Patagonian penguin 

 are, the bill longer than the head, slender, straight, a 

 little curved at the tip ; the upper mandible furrowed 

 throughout its length ; the under one wider than the 

 upper at the base, and covered with a smooth skin ; 

 the nostrils in the upper part of the bill concealed in 

 front by feathers ; the legs very short, thick, placed 

 far backwards ; four toes on each foot, all turned 

 forwards, three of them of considerable length and 

 completely webbed, the fourth one very short ; wings 

 merely rudimental, quite unadapted for flying, and 

 the feathers on them having nearly as, much resem- 

 blance to scales as to ordinary feathers. 



These birds can swim and dive well, but they are 

 rather the inhabitants of the lonely shores, than 

 discursive over the sea. Indeed, none of the wingless 

 birds have the habit of making long excursions. 

 That they should not, is a wise provision of nature ; 

 because they are mostly inhabitants of seas liable to 

 be agitated by violent tempests ; and as they are in 

 general heavy birds, they would be ill able for contend- 

 ing with the agitation of the water produced during 

 these. This genus is found on the Antarctic shores, 

 most abundantly in the creeks of the southern part of 

 the American continent, and of the island of Terra 

 del Fuego ; but they are also met with in various 

 others of the southern islands. They do not move 

 equatorially, or appear to leave their localities at any 

 season ; and they are so unsuspecting, that they may 

 be taken with the hand, or knocked down by a stick. 

 For particulars of this and an allied genus, see PENGUIN. 



APTERA wings wanting. A name first em- 

 ployed by Aristotle, and subsequently by the early 

 systematists, and adopted by Linnaeus to designate 

 all those species of articulated animals furnished with 

 articulated legs, which are destitute of wings during 

 the whole period of their existence ; another peculi- 

 arity exhibited by these animals being that, unlike the 

 winged insects, nearly the whole of them acquire 

 their perfect form, on escaping from the egg, the 

 only change which they undergo consisting of an 

 increase of their size, as in quadrupeds, or more pro- 

 perly, resulting from a series of moultings, as in the 

 serpent tribes. In the system of Linnaeus this order 

 contained 290 speices, distributed in the following 

 manner : 



A, with six legs, and the head distinct from the 

 thorax, containing the genera, Ijppixmn, three species : 



APTENODYTES APTERA. 



and Poilura (or spring tails), fourteen species ; Ter- 

 mes (or white ants), three species ; Pediculus (or the 

 lice), forty species ; Pulex (the flea), two species. 



B. with fourteen legs, and the head united to 

 the thorax. Acarus (or the mites), thirty-five species ; 

 Phalangium (or the harvest spiders), nine species ; 

 Aranca (the spiders), forty-seven species ; Scorpio (the 

 scorpion), six species ; Cancer (the crabs and lobs- 

 ters), eighty-two species ; Monoculus (the water fleas), 

 nine species ; Oniscus (the wood lice), fifteen species. 



C. with numerous legs, and the head separate from 

 the thorax. Scolopetidra (or centipedes), eleven spe- 

 cies ; andVM/? (or the millepedes), eight species. 



In the days of Linnaeus, however, the structure, 

 and more especially the internal organisation of these 

 apterous insects had been so little attended to, that 

 we can scarcely but feel surprised, whilst considering 

 that the formation of these different generic groups 

 presented modifications of far higher rank than tho&e 

 by which the genera of the beetles or other winged 

 orders were distinguished from each other, that in so 

 imperfect a sketch as the above, the traces of those 

 higher distributions should be observed which the 

 more minute investigations of modern naturalists 

 have rendered necessary ; thus, if from the first divi- 

 sion A. we remove the genera Termes and Pulex 

 which undergo transformations, we shall have a divi- 

 sion corresponding with the sub-class Ametabola of 

 Leach, which see ; the genera Acarus and Araneu 

 constitute the modern class Arachnida, which see; 

 and Cancer monoculus and oniscus, that of the Crus- 

 tacea, whilst the two genera composing the section 

 C. are formed into the modern division Myria- 

 poda, each being the type of an order, namely, the 

 Chilognatha and Ckilopoda of Latreille and Leach. 



The original name of the order thus separated 

 into so many other divisions, has been employed by 

 entomologists in various manners, so that unless the 

 student be put upon his guard he would be greatly 

 perplexed in consulting the valuable works in which 

 such variations occur. Thus Lamarck, having esta- 

 blished the class of arachnida, and removed all the 

 other genera to different classes, with the exception 

 of the flea, retained the original name of aptera for 

 the order established for the reception of that insect, 

 in which respect he has been followed by Mr. 

 Macleay. Messrs. Kirby and Spence, on the con- 

 trary, proposed the name of aphaniptera for the order 

 of the fleas, and applied the term aptera for the 

 spring tails, the mites and harvest spiders, the 

 centipedes and millepedes, all of which they intro- 

 duced into the class insecta, retaining the spiders 

 alone in the class Arachnida, whilst Latreille, consi- 

 dering the arachnids in a wider extent, and the 

 Myriapoda as distinct classes, has employed, in some 

 of his later works, the term aptera as a primary 

 section of the true insects consisting'of the Linnaean 

 genera, Lepivna and podura, pediculus and pulex. 



As, however, the group, which it was originally 

 proposed to designate by the name of aptera, has been 

 broken up into so many different sections, it would 

 certainly seem to be a matter of convenience that 

 the name by which, as a whole, these groups were 

 known should be no longer employed ; if, moreover, 

 no other motive existed than that of removing all the 

 confusion above detailed, by the employment of a 

 more restricted nomenclature, we should feel but 

 little hesitation in rejecting the term aptera alto- 

 gether; but as the occasion for its employment is 

 no longer requisite, we shall regard the erder, con- 



