Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology
Chapter 14
Ripicolous: dwelling on river banks: riparian.
Rorulentum: dusty: =pulverulent: q.v.
Roseate-eous,-ens: rose colored: pale blood red [rose].
Rosette-shaped: in the form of a double rose: clustered round a centre.
Rostellum: a small beak; applied to the mouth parts of sucking lice: also used in Hemiptera, as = rostrum; q.v.
Rostral: pertaining or attached to a rostrum; specifically of Hemiptera.
Rostrate: the head, when it has a long protraction bearing the mouth parts.
Rostriform: produced like a beak or snout.
Rostrum: a snout-like prolongation of the head: in Coleoptera, applied to the rigid extension in the snout beetles: in Hemiptera, is the jointed beak covering the piercing lancets; and this is the better use of the term.
Rotate: wheel-shaped.
Rotator: used for turning; applied to muscles.
Rotatory: an articulation that permits a rotating motion, e.g. a ball and socket joint.
Rotula: a small round segment sometimes present between the joints of antenna; and palpi: = torquillus.
Rotule: the trochantine.
Rotundate: rounded: in the form of a circle or segment of a circle: without angles: said of margins when they pass gradually into each other and do not form an angle at their point of junction.
Royal jelly: the food supplied to bee larva that develop into queens.
Royal pairs or Royalties: the sexually active males and females of social insects.
Ruben: red, approaching carmine [alizar crimson].
Rubescent: reddish or becoming red.
Rubiginose: a rusty red [dragon's blood, but brighter].
Rubinous: ruby red: like the eye of a house fly.
Rudiment -any: the beginning of any structure or part before it has developed.
Rufescent: reddish.
Rufous: brick-red [chronic yellow + dragon's blood].
Ruga, Rugulae: a wrinkle; small wrinkles.
Rugose -ous: wrinkled: with irregular waved elevated lines.
Rugulose -ous; minutely wrinkled.
Runcinate: notched: cut into several transverse acute segments which point backward.
Ruptor ovi: = egg burster; q.v.
Rutilous: a shining bronze red.
S
Sabulose: sandy or gritty.
Sac: in Coccidae, the separate cottony envelope secreted by many species.
Saccate: gibbous or inflated toward one end.
Saccule: a little sac or pouch.
Saccus: a lobe of ventral plate of 9th segment in female Lepidoptera.
Saddle: the chitinous plate on the anal siphon of Culicid larvae.
Sagitta: arrow-like spots on the wings of Lepidoptera and other insects.
Sagittae: the inner pair of forceps in male genitalia of aculeate Hymenoptera: see stipites.
Sagittal: equivalent to longitudinal.
Sagittal plane: the longitudinal vertical plane which divides an animal into right and left halves.
Sagittate: shaped like an arrow head: elongate triangular.
Salient: projecting; jutting out.
Saliva: the secretion of the salivary glands that moistens and begins the digestion of the food.
Salivary glands: glands that open into the mouth or at the beginning of the alimentary canal, secreting a digestive, irritant or viscid material.
Salivary receptacle: a small cavity above the opening of the salivary duct, between labium and hypopharynx.
Salivary pump: applied to the chitinous, cup-like structure at the base of the labial stylets of piercing Diptera; e.g. mosquitoes.
Saltatoria: that series of Orthoptera in which the posterior legs are formed for jumping.
Saltatorial or Saltatory: formed for jumping or leaping: a posterior femur when much enlarged and dilated.
Saltatory appendage: in Collembola = furcula; q.v.
Sanguineous -eus: red like arterial blood [crimson lake].
Sanguinolent: bloody; in color or appearance.
Sapphyrinus: sapphire blue [French blue].
Sarcolemma: the elastic covering of the striated muscular fibres.
Sarothrum: the basal joint of posterior tarsus in pollen gatherers: see metatarsus.
Saturate: deeply or strongly marked; in a color, means intense.
Saxicolous: species that frequent rocky or stony areas.
Saws: the ovipositors of the saw flies or Tenthredinidae.
Scaber: uneven, rough.
Scabriculous: regularly and finely wrinkled.
Scabrose -ous: rough like a file, with small raised points.
Scalariform: ladder-like; applied to venation when the veinlets between two longitudinal veins are regularly arranged like the rungs of a ladder.
Scale: a general term to distinguish Coccidae: specifically the puparium of a Diaspid, comprising exuviae and excreted matter: the waxy covering of a male Lecaniid: in Diptera = alula: q.v.
Scales: broad flattened hairs, forming the wing vestiture of Lepidoptera, and present in various other insects.
Scalloped: an edge marked by segments of circles without intervening angles.
Scalpellus: a lancet-like piercing structure, as in some Diptera.
Scalpriform: chisel-shaped.
Scansorial: said of feet, when formed for climbing on hair.
Scape: the long basal joint of a geniculate antenna in Coleoptera; usually applied to the three basal joints, as in Hymenoptera.
Scaphiform: boat-shaped.
Scaphium: a ventral process of the 10th abdominal segment in male Lepidoptera below the uncus.
Scapula: in Lepidoptera the shoulder tippets, patagia or axillae; q.v.: in Hymenoptera, the side pieces of the mesonotum; also, a trochanter of the fore-leg; in Proctotrupidae the lateral lobes on each side of the parapsidal furrow.
Scapulae: in Hemiptera, the inferior lateral face of mesonotum.
Scapular: the episternum; q.v.: applied to the scapula.
Scapular area: in a wing, is that portion nearest the shoulder: in Orthoptera, = radial area.
Scapularia: a meso-episternum: see scapula.
Scapular vein: in Orthoptera, = radius.
Scapus: = scape.
Scarabidoid: applied to that stage of a meloid larva in which it resembles a white grub or Scarabid larva.
Scarified: a surface with irregular depressions, as if clawed or scratched.
Scariose -ous: dry and scaly.
Scatophagous: feeding upon dung or excrement:= merdivorous.
Scent glands, or organs: glandular structures; sometimes eversible, sometimes in the form of hair tufts or pencils for diffusing odors that may be repellant or attractive; most frequently found in males as a secondary sexual character.
Scent pores: = ostioles; q.v.
Sclerite: any piece of the body wall bounded by sutures.
Scopa: a brush: a covering of short, stiff hair of equal length: in Hymenoptera, the thick hair covering the posterior tibia of pollen-gathering forms.
Scopate: furnished with a scopa.
Scopula: a small, dense tuft of hair: the bristles or stiff hairs covering the inner side of basal joint on the tarsi of pollen-gathering Hymenoptera.
Scopulipedes: bees which have pollen gathering structures on the feet.
Scraper: the hardened portion of the inner margin of the tegmina in crickets used in producing the song.
Scriptus: lettered or marked with characters resembling letters.
Scrobes: grooves formed for the reception or concealment of an appendage specifically, in Rhynchophora, grooves at the sides of the rostrum to receive the scape of antenna 2: also applied to grooves on the sides of mandibles: in Hymenoptera, the usually circular impressions upon the frons, in which the scapes revolve: in Orthoptera, the pits in which the antenna; are situate.
Scrobiculated: having the surface covered with deep round pits.
Scrotal membrane: the envelope covering the testes in some insects.
Scrotiform: purse-shaped.
Scrotum: = scrotal membrane; q, v.
Sculpture: the markings or pattern of impression or elevation on an elytra or other body surface.
Sculptured: a surface, when marked with elevations or depressions or both, arranged in some definite manner.
Scutate-iform: shield or buckler-shaped.
Scutcheon: = scutellum; q.v.: also used by some authors (Walker) for the pronotum in Homoptera.
Scutel: = scutellum: q.v.
Scutellar angle: of elytra is next to the scutel when wing is expanded.
Scutellar bridge: in Diptera, a small ridge on either side of the Scutellum, connecting it with the mesonotum.
Scutellar space: in Mantids, an area between antennae and clypeus.
Scutellate: dish- or platter-shaped.
Scutellum: the third dorsal sclerite of the meso- and meta-thorax: in Coleoptera, the triangular piece between the elytra at base and universally referred to as the scutellum: in Heteroptera, a similar sclerite between base of hemelytra: in Diptera, a sub-hemispherical. body posteriorly cut off by an impressed line from the dorsum of the meso-thorax.
Scutes: the chitinous shields or plates on the segments of larvae.
Scutiform: = scutate; q.v.
Scutum: the second dorsal sclerite of the meso- and meta-thorax.
Seal-brown: a brilliant deep red-brown: almost like, but darker than castaneous [between dragon's blood and Indian red].
Sebaceous: fatty or oily; applied to glands secreting such substances.
Sebific: oily; sebaceous; somewhat sticky.
Sebific duct: carries the excretions of the colleterial gland to the bursa copulatrix.
Second antennal segment: the third or tritocerebral segment of head.
Secondaries: the hind wings; always attached to the meta-thorax.
Secondary sexual characters: features possessed by one sex but not the other, other than the differences of the reproductive organs themselves; e.g. color, size, shape, etc.
Second clypeus: see anteclypeus.
Second costal cell: in Hymenoptera (Pack.); is the stigma.
Second inner apical: in Hymenoptera (Nort.), = media 3 (Comst), to the junction of medial cross-vein; also called sub-marginal nervure in part.
Second lateral thoracic suture: in Odonata, extends front base of secondaries to the rear of the third coxa.
Second longitudinal vein: in Diptera:= radius 2 + 3 (Comst). Second maxilla: the labium: q.v.
Second maxillary segment: the seventh or labial segment of head.
Second median area: see median area; areola.
Second submarginal nervure: Hymenoptera (Nort.), = radius 5 (Comst.).
Secretion: any matter produced by a gland: in Coccidae, specifically, the waxy, fibrous, cottony or silky substances forming the "scales."
Secretionary supplement: that part of a Diaspid scale extending beyond or around the pellicles.
Secretory: concerned in the process of secretion.
Sectores coronis: the tearing or cutting structures used by the Lepidoptera in working out of a cocoon.
Sectors: longitudinal veins in Odonata, which strike the principal veins at an angle, and usually reach the apex or hind margin: they are radial, subnodal, principal, nodal, median, short, and upper and lower of triangle: all of which see.
Secund: pointing one way: unilateral.
Securiform: triangular-compressed; like the blade of a hatchet.
Sedentary: not active: settled or remaining in one place.
Segment: a ring or division bounded by incisions or sutures: a segment of an insect or of any articulate is a transverse portion reaching entirely across the body, originally separated on the exterior by incisions or sutures from the preceding and the succeeding segments, having attached to it not more than one pair of ventral appendages, containing internally not more than one pair of nerve ganglia which supply nerves to the pair of appendages; = somite, arthromere: fusion of segments frequently obscures, as in the head: externally the walls of one segment may be composed of a number of sclerites separated from each other by secondary sutures.
Segmentate: made up of rings or segments.
Segmentation of egg: the division of the originally single celled egg into a number of coherent cells or blastomeres; = cleavage.
Segregated: detached or scattered into groups.
Segregation: a separation or placing apart.
Sejunctus: separated.
Sellate: saddle-shaped.
Sematophore: a seminal packet, composed of the seminal fluid mixed with the excretions of the accessory glands.
Sembling: = assembling; q.v.
Semen: the fluid secreted in the testes, containing the spermatozoa.
Semi-: half.
Semicircular: like the half of a circle.
Semi-complete: in metamorphosis, = incomplete; q.v.
Semicordate: half or partly heart-shaped.
Semicoronate: partly surrounded by a margin of spines, hooks or the like.
Semicoronet: a margin of spines or hooks partly surrounding a structure or process.
Semi-cylindrical: like a groove or half a cylinder.
Semi-hyaline: hyaline in part only: not altogether transparent.
Semi-looper: a caterpillar in which one or two pairs only of the abdominal legs are wanting and where in progression, only small loops are formed: see looper.
Semi-lunar: in the form of half a crescent.
Semi-lunar valve: guards the auriculo-ventricular opening of the heart.
Seminal ducts: = vasa deferentia; q.v.
Seminal vesicles: enlarged tube or pouch-like structures which serve to store the seminal fluid of the male, and in which the later stages of its development may take place.
Seminiferous: semen-secreting.
Semipupa: that stage of the larva just preceding pupation: more specifically the interpolated stage between the active larva and the true pupa, in hyper-metamorphosis.
Semi-saggitate: like the longitudinal half of an arrow head.
Semitropical or Gulf strip: is the southern part of the Austro-riparian area extends from Texas to Southern Florida, covers a narrow strip in So. Georgia and probably follows the coastal lowlands into South Carolina.
Sensim: gradually.
Sensoria: the circular openings covered by membrane, on the antenna or legs of plant lice.
Sensory: relating to or having a sense function.
Sensory pittings: deep pits or punctures through the surface, which may or may not bear pegs, bristles or seta, and may be open or covered by a membrane; serving as organs of perception for sounds or smells.
Septa, Septula: in Odonata, the triangular area of the mesonotum before the insertion of the primaries: = calli axillary.
Septum: an internal division of a body cavity.
Sequence: the order in which things follow; e.g. species or genera.
Seriatim: placed in longitudinal rows.
Sericeous: silky: clothed with very dense minute hair which gives a silky lustre.
Sericterium -ies: the silk producing gland or glands in caterpillars: the spinning structures.
Series: a group of species, genera or families, arranged to show agreement in a common character which is not of sufficient importance to warrant the next higher division.
Serific glands: are these which produce a thick, mucous-like secretion which, on hardening, forms silk.
Serosa: the outer membrane that envelops the forming embryo, the amnion and the remainder of the egg.
Serpentinous: a dirty, dark green [Hooker's green].
Serra: a saw or saw-like part.
Serrate: saw-toothed, the teeth set toward one end.
Serrato-dentate: toothed, the edges themselves saw-toothed.
Serratulate: with little teeth or serrations.
Serricornia: that series of Coleoptera in which the antenna are serrate or saw-toothed.
Serriferous: possessing a saw-like ovipositor in the female; the saw-flies.
Serrulate: with numerous little saw teeth.
Serum: the fluid in which the blood corpuscles float or are suspended.
Sesquialter or Sesquiocellus: a large ocellus including a smaller one.
Sesquitertial: occupying a fourth part.
Sessile: closely seated: the abdomen, when it is closely attached for nearly or quite its full width to the thorax.
Sessiliventres: Hymenoptera in which the abdomen is sessile.
Seta -ae: a pointed bristle or long stiff hair: slender, hair-like appendages.
Setaceous: bristle-shaped: slender, gradually tapering to a tip.
Setarious aristate: the dipterous antenna when the arista is simple.
Setiferous: = setigercus; q.v.
Setiform: in the form of a bristle or seta: when a slender short bristle arises from a thicker basal joint.
Setigenous: the hypodermal cells that give rise to setae.
Setigerous: bearing setae or bristles; e.g. punctures.
Setiparous: producing hair or sets.
Setireme: the hairy, oar-like legs of aquatic insects.
Setose -ous: bristly or set with bristles.
Setula: a small stiff bristle or seta: in Diptera, the small thorn at the end of the sub-costa.
Setulose: clothed with fine seta or setulae.
Sex: as a number, six: the physical difference between male and female: usually indicated by the sign of Mars (?) for male, and Venus (?) for female; workers or undeveloped females have the sign of Venus without the cross line, or a combination of the two others.
Sexuparae: that generation of plant lice which produces the true sexes.
Shade: a cloudy, ill-defined streak or band.
Shagreened: a surface roughened with minute tooth-like projections.
Shank: = tibia; q.v.
Shard: a chitinous sheath or elytron.
Sharp: with a pointed tip or thin edge; opposed to blunt.
Sheath of penis: in Odonata, a median, hood-like piece between the hamules, under which the penis is folded when not in use.
Shin: = tibia; q.v.
Short sector: in Odonata, = media 4 (Comst.).
Shoulder: loosely applied to an obtuse angulation; more generally to the humeral angle of fore wings or elytra: the anterior angles of thorax in Lepidoptera; the angles of prothorax in Heteroptera: the lateral angles of metazona of pronotum in Orthoptera.
Sialisterium: a salivary gland.
Side: the lateral margin of the body.
Side piece: in genitalia of male Culicids the main lateral part of the clasping organ or basal segment of clasp.
Sides of thorax: in Odonata, includes the pleura of meso- and meta- thorax, less the meso-episterna.
Sienna: a brownish orange [brown ochre].
Sigmoid: shaped like the Greek letter sigma, or English S.
Signate -us: = with marks or spots; see notate.
Signature: a colored blotch of any size or shape.
Silaceous: = ochraceous.
Silk: the hardened salivary secretion of certain larvae, mainly of Lepidoptera. similar material is produced by anal glands of some larva in Neuroptera.
Silk-glands: a pair of modified salivary glands in certain larva, mostly of Lepidoptera that secrete a viscid fluid which, on contact with the air, hardens into a silken fibre.
Silvicolous: living in moist, shady woods.
Simple, Simplex: without process, armature, or appendage of any kind.
Simple eyes: = ocelli; q.v.
Sinciput: in Coleoptera; that part of the vertex between the eyes.
Sinistrad: toward the left.
Sinistral: extending to or at the left from the median line.
Sinistro-caudad: extending obliquely from the left toward the tail.
Sinistro-cephalad: extending obliquely from the left toward the head.
Sinuate: cut into sinuses; applied to lines and margins with an in and out curve.
Sinuated: winding: with the edge scooped into sinuses.
Sinuato-convex: sinuate and convex.
Sinuato-lobate: sinuate and lobed.
Sinuato-truncate: truncated, with the margin sinuate.
Sinuous: undulating; curved in and out.
Sinus: a curvilinear indentation more or less profound: an excavation as if scooped out: a curved break in an otherwise straight margin.
Siphon: a tube-like mouth organ in certain insects: the breathing tube of a Culicid larva: any tubular external process or structure.
Siphonaptera: an ordinal name for insects which are wingless: mouth formed for piercing and sucking; saltatorial; transformations complete: the fleas = Aphaniptera; q.v.
Siphonata: = Homoptera or, more specifically, plant lice and leaf hoppers.
Siphonets: see honey tubes.
Siphonophora: = Coccinellidae; the term is preoccupied in the Coelenterates.
Siphunculata: the sucking lice.
Siphunculus: the suctorial organ of a louse, contained within the tubule: in plant lice =honey tubes; q.v.
Situ (in): in its natural place or position.
Sixth longitudinal vein: in Diptera; = 1st anal vein (Comst.).
Skeleton: the hard chitinous parts which externally (exoskeleton) or internally (endoskeleton) form a protective covering, or serve as points of attachment, to muscles and other soft organs.
Skippers: a popular term for Hesperid butterflies: the dipterous larva sometimes found in cheese and other provisions.
Slaty: very dark blackish gray with a reddish tinge [neutral with a little Indian red].
Slug: in general, any larva that has a slimy viscid appearance, and the body closely applied to the food plant: more specifically, the larvae of certain saw-flies and of some Coleoptera.
S. M. interspace: sub-median interspace in the primaries of Lepidoptera, includes the space between the median and sub-median veins; (cubitus and 1st anal, Comst.).
Smaltinus: a dull grayish blue.
Smaragdinus: emerald green [pale green].
Smooth: a surface without elevations or indentations.
Snout: the prolongation of the head in Rhynchophora at the end of which the mouth parts are situated: see rostrum.
Social: living in communities: more especially those species in which undeveloped or worker forms occur and where the colony has a single female head.
Soldiers: in termites; forms sexually undeveloped, in which the mandibles are pincer-like and the head is much enlarged: worker majors in certain ants.
Solid: applied to an organ usually jointed, when these joints form into one mass; e.g. the capitulum of certain clavate antennae.
Solitary-arius: occurring singly or in pairs; not in colonies.
Somatic: relating to the body, or abdomen.
Somatotheca: that part of pupa covering abdominal rings:= gasterotheca.
Somite: = arthromere.
Sonifaction: the production of sound: = stridulation; q.v.
Sonoran faunal areas: see upper and lower Sonoran.
Sonorific: sound producing: applied to stridulating organs.
Sordid: dirty; dull.
Spadiceous: bay brown [dragon's blood + brown ochre].
Spado: the worker or neuter in bees and ants.
Sparse: scattered: single hairs, scales or sculptures set well apart.
Spatha: a median piece in male genitalia of aculeate Hymenoptera, covering the bases of the sagitte.
Spatula: the breast bone (q.v.) of cecidomyid larvae.
Spatulate: rounded and broad at top, attenuate at base.
Specialization: the adaptation of an organ to a definite purpose, or of an organism to fit a determinate environment.
Species: an aggregation of individuals alike in appearance and structure, mating freely and producing young that themselves mate freely and bear fertile offspring resembling each other and their parents: a species includes all its varieties and races.
Specific character: a feature common to all individuals of a species, by means of which they may be distinguished from all other individuals of other species: = essential character.
Specular: mirror-like: transparent.
Specular membrane: in male Cicada, the inner or posterior mirror-like membrane of the sound-organ: = mirror.
Speculum: a transparent area or spot on wings of some Lepidoptera; the glassy areas at base of tegmina in male Orthoptera that serve as sounding boards: a spot on the neck of some caterpillars.
Sperm: the seminal fluid: in plural form is sometimes used as = spermatozoa; q.v.
Spermatheca: = spermatotheca; q.v.
Spermatid: the final cells which are converted without further division into spermatozoa: they arise by division of the second spermatocytes (Wilson).
Spermatocytes: the cells arising from the spermatogonia. The primary spermatocyte arises by growth of one of the last generation of spermatogonia. By its division are formed two secondary spermatocytes, each of which give rise to two spermatids (Wilson).
Spermatogenesis: the development of spermatozoa.
Spermatogonia: the descendants of the primordial germ cells in the male. Each ultimate spermatogonium typically gives rise to four spermatozoa.
Spermatophora: a sac or case containing spermatozoa.
Spermatotheca: the sac or reservoir in the female, that receives the sperm during coition: = spermatheca and receptaculum seminis.
Spermatozoön-zoa: the male cell or cells which, by uniting with the ova, fertilize them.
Spherical: in the form of a sphere: a body in which all diameters are equal.
Spherule: a minute sphere or globule.
Spicula: a slender needle-like process: e.g. the sting in bees: also employed as = ovipositor: q.v.
Spiculiform: like a slender, needle-like process.
Spiculum: a small spicule or thin, pointed process.
Spinate: produced into an acuminate spine.