THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 



JANUARY, 1863. 



THE FEET OF INSECTS. 



BY L. LANE CLARKE. 

 (With a Tinted Plate.) 



It was suggested to me, some time ago, that a paper on the Feet 

 of Insects might be acceptable to the readers of the Intel- 

 lectual Observer; but, somewhat fearing that the subject was 

 too well known, from the usual popular exhibitions of the foot 

 of a fly or of a spider, I opened my collection of mounted in- 

 sects, and began to look more carefully at their feet. 



Small Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera 

 were mounted whole, and parts of larger insects gave me 

 several remarkable organs of motion. The feet, however, soon 

 led the mind upward to the conclusion that, as the mechanism 

 of the human hand or foot can only be understood by taking it 

 in connection with the whole 

 arm or leg, including the 

 shoulder-blade and hip joint, 

 so the feet of insects require 

 an examination of the leg, and 

 a knowledge of each joint, in 

 order to appreciate the infi- 

 nite variety, and perfect adap- 

 tation of every part to the 

 wants and habits of these "liv- 

 ing creatures." 



I have said that the leg of 

 an insect, and the vertebrate 

 arm or leg have some resem- 

 blance in their composition; 

 the leg is, perhaps, the best 

 for comparison. They are 

 both divided into four prin- 

 cipal parts : — a, coxa, or hip ; b, femur, or thigh ; c, tibia, 

 or shank ; d, tarsus, or foot ; a* is an additional small joint, 

 * Philos. Trans. 1816, 325, t. xviii. 



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