EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 619 



1. To begin with the articulation of these organs with 

 the trunk ; in general it may be stated that this, as in 

 tegmina and hemelytra, is usually by the intervention of 

 three axes, formed by the conflux of the nervures of the 

 three areas at the base of the wing, which either imme- 

 diately or by other pieces are implanted in the trunk, so 

 as to receive from it the aerial and other fluids, neces- 

 sary for its expansion and motions*. Having given this 

 general statement, I shall next apply it to the wings in 

 some of the different Orders. If you carefully extract one 

 from the stag-beetle (Lucanus Cervus) or any large species 

 of the Dynastidce, in the Coleoptera ; the first thing that 

 will strike you, upon examining the base, will be the plate 

 before mentioned called by Chabrier the humerus, which 

 is a stout transverse corneous piece, with a deep sinus to- 

 wards the wing, filled with ligament : if you again follow 

 the costal, mediastinal, and postcostal nervures, you will 

 find them unite to form an axis, consisting of three pa- 

 rallel pieces, which connects by its intermediate internal 

 piece with one end of this plate. The nervures of the In- 

 termediate Area terminate also in a corneous axis at a 

 greater distance from the base than the other two, which 

 connects with Chabrier's humerus by means of the liga- 

 ment of the sinus just named. Those of the Anal Area 

 are received by a ligament attached to a transverse plate, 

 widest at its anterior end, which connects with the poste- 

 rior part of the said humerus j and at its posterior end is 

 united to the postjr<Enum h , with which it forms a right 

 angle. In the Orthoptera Order the structure is not very 

 different, but the axes and other plates of the base of the 



c Chabrier Surle Vol des Ins. c. ii. 325—. and 326. Note 1. 

 b See above, p . 572 — . 



