ARTICULATED ANIMALS. 
4?6 
the teguments themselves, each of which bears a breathing pore, so that the sides of 
the abdomen exhibit a longitudinal series of small pieces, or each segment is, as it were, 
divided into four. Other pieces, also corneous, occupy the lower sides of the meso- 
thorax and metathorax, immediately beneath the insertion of the elytra and wings, 
which are supported by another piece, placed longitudinally. The relations of these 
parts, the size and form of the first joint of the coxae, or haunches, the manner in which 
they articulate with the semi-ring to which they are attached, and the extent and 
direction of this variable semi-ring, furnish the thorax, considered in this respect, with 
a combination of characters which is very serviceable in a systematic point of view. 
Some naturalists, especially Knoch, had already made use of them, but without any 
determined principle, and with arbitrary names. It was, however, necessary to study 
the composition of the thorax carefully, in all the classes of insects — a task commenced 
by the late Lachat, and followed up by M. Victor Audouin, who presented a memoir 
on this subject to the Academie des Sciences. It is, however, only known to us by 
the general sketch of it given by Cuvier in his Report*, and by the extract published 
by its author in the article Insect in the Dictionnaire Classique d’Hist. Nat. To 
adopt this nomenclature, and give it a general application, we must wait for this memoir 
and its illustrative figures ; but in practice, the denominations already introduced will 
sufiftce. Another memoir, upon the same subject, by M. Chabrier, with admirable 
figures, and one by the elder Jurine upon the wings of the Hymenoptera, must also be 
mentioned. 
As insects inhabit aU kinds of situations, they have all the kinds of locomotive organs : 
namely, wings and legs, which last, in many species, are used as oars. The wings are I 
membranous, dry, elastic, generally transparent, pieces attached to the sides of the back 
of the thorax ; the anterior pair, when there are four, or when they are the only pair, 
being upon the mesothorax, and the posterior pair upon the following segment, or 
metathorax. They are composed of two membranes applied upon each other, and tra- 
versed, in various directions, by more or less numerous nervures, which are so many 
trachean tubes, forming sometimes a network, and sometimes simply veined. The elder 
Jurine has advantageously employed the disposition and crossing of these nervures in 
systematic arrangement. The Dragon-flies, Bees, Wasps, Butterflies, &c., have four 
wings ; but those of Butterflies are covered with small scales, which at first sight re- j| 
semble dust, and which give these insects the colours with which they are ornamented, i 
They easily come off on being touched by the finger, and the portion of the wing from " 
which they have been taken is transparent. With the microscope, these scales appear } || 
of varied figures, and are implanted upon the wing by means of a footstalk, and I 
arranged regularly in rows like the tiles of a roof. In front of the fore-wings of these 
insects are a pair of pterygoda (a kind of epaulettes), which extend backwards along 
a part of the back, upon which they are applied. In certain insects, the wings remain | j| 
* [A long note is here given in the second edition, containing the 
details of M. Audouin’s researches. I can, however, only introduce 
the following slight abridgment : — The trunk, or thorax, is always 
typically divisible, on the outside, into three segments, each bearing 
a pair of feet, — namely, the prothorax, mesothorax (bearing the fore 
wings), and metathorax (bearing the hind wings) . Each segment is 
composed of four parts : one inferior, two lateral (these three forming 
the breast), and one dorsal, forming the back. The inferior part is 
the sternum; the lateral pieces, or flanks, are each divisible into three 
principal pieces ; one (the episternum) attached to the sternum, 
another (the epimeron), articulating with the coxa. Another small 
piece (the trochantine) assists in the union of the epimeron and coxa. 
whilst the third piece of the flank is placed, in the meso- and meta- 
thorax, beneath the wing, and is called the hypoptera, since changed 
by Audouin to paraptera. The dorsal part, or tergum, is divided into 
four pieces, named, from their position in each segment, the prje- 
scutum, scutum, scutellum, and postscutellum : the first of which is 
often, and the last nearly always, internal. Thus the thorax is divi- 
sible into thirty-three principal pieces, or forty-three, including the 
hypoptera. The epimera had been previously called scapulas, and 
parapleurae, by Knoch. The posterior coxa of the Coleopteia, forming 
a transverse plate, is his mmrium. Mr. M'Leay has subsequently pub- 
lished an elaborate memoir upon the structure of the thorax in the 
1 Zoological Journal.l 
