57 



MEMBERS OF THE ABDOMEN. 



THE only members in this portion of an insect's 

 body, are situated upon the two last rings, and are 

 very various in form and use. Insects, having no 

 spine, like animals furnished with bones, have no 

 tail, at least similar in structure to that of the dog or 

 the horse ; but in many moths there is a hairy brush, 

 which is termed the tail( ! ), on the last ring. Its use 

 is not apparent in the males, while in the females the. 

 hair is plucked out to cover their eggs, by an instru- 

 ment similar to a pair of tweezers, also placed on the 

 last ring of the abdomen. In the scorpion fly the tail 

 is jointed. 



In earwigs there is a forked member ( 2 ) on the last 

 ring, the blades of which are moveable, and which 

 are said to be used for folding up (rather, I should 

 think, for unfolding) the wings, which are for the 

 most part concealed under the short wing cases. A 

 somewhat similar member, but the blades crossing 

 each other as scissors, is found in the male snake fly. 

 In the rove beetles are long, narrow, stiff members ; 

 and the dragon-flies, leaf-like members on the last 

 ring, absurdly called a sting, but whose use is not 

 well ascertained, any more than the use of the long 

 bristles jointed into the last ring in the day fly, and 

 shorter ones in the cockroach, and some crickets and 

 grasshoppers. 



In other instances, there are long members in the 

 last ring, somewhat similar to a brad-awl, and used 

 for the purpose of boring holes to deposit the 

 eggs. These are peculiar to females, and are termed 



(1) In Latin, Cauda. (2) In Latin, Forceps. 



