Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology

Chapter 7

Chapter 73,667 wordsPublic domain

Frenulum: the spine, simple in males, compound in females, arising from the base of secondaries in many Lepidoptera, whose function it is to unite the wings in flight: in Cicada the triangular lateral piece on the mesonotum which connects with the trochlea: the anal area of secondaries and thus = tendo, q.v.

Frenulum hook: in the males of frenate Lepidoptera, a hook or fold into which the frenulum is fitted.

Frenum: that which holds things together: a lunate or triangular portion at the inner and hinder base of the wing in Odonata and Trichoptera; see tendo.

Fringe -es: an edging of hair, scales or other processes extending well beyond the margin and usually of even length: in Lepidoptera, fringes occur on the outer margins of all wings and consist of scales or hair projecting beyond the wing membrane.

Frog: the articular pan, - q.v.

Frons: = front; q.v.

Front: the anterior portion of head between base of antennae and below ocelli: in Homoptera, the vertical median area of face.

Frontal: referring to the front of head or anterior aspect of any part.

Frontal costa: Orthoptera, a prominent vertical ridge of bead which may be median or lateral: see median carina and lateral carina.

Frontal fastigium: in Orthoptera, that process of the face extending dorsad between the antennae and meeting or nearly meeting the fastigium of the vertex in Tettigidae.

Frontal fissure: Diptera; the impressed line extending from the frontal lunule to the border of the mouth.

Frontal lobes: in Psyllidae, two lobes or swellings more or less completely divided by a suture in which an ocellus is situated.

Frontal lunule: Diptera; an oval or crescentic space above the base of antennae in Cyclorrhapha, bounded by the frontal suture.

Frontal processes: Diptera; = antennal process, q.v.

Frontal ridge: in Coleopteran; a sharp ridge on the dorsal margin of the eye, extending forward.

Frontal stripe: Diptera; the middle of the front when membranous or discolored: = vitta frontalis.

Frontal suture: Diptera; separates the frontal lunule from that part of the head above it: in Coleopteran; = clypeal suture.

Frontal tubercles: in certain Aphids, are raised structures upon which the antennae are placed.

Frontal triangle: Diptera; the triangular space in males, between the eyes below, limited by a line drawn through base of antennae.

Frontal vesicle: in Odonata; that elevated area on the vertex upon which the ocelli are situated.

Fronto-orbital bristles: in Diptera; are placed on each side of the front, just below the vertical bristles.

Fugitive: soon disappearing; not permanent.

Fulcrant: the trochanter when continued along the femur, as in Carabids.

Fulcrum: the chitinous envelope at the base of mouth in Diptera and Hymenoptera, covering the beginning of the oesophagus: any structure that serves as a support to another..

Fulgidus: shining.

Fuliginous -osus: sooty or smoky brown [Van Dyke brown + a little black].

Fulvo-aeneous: brazen, with a touch of brownish yellow [brown pink].

Fulvous -us: tawny; light brown with much yellow; nearly orange [pale cadmium yellow + Indian red].

Fumate -us: smoky gray [gray].

Fumose: smoky.

Function: the work or duty which a given part or organ normally performs.

Fungicolous: living in or on fungi.

Funicle: the joints between the scape and club in Funiculate antennae: a small cord: a slender stalk.

Funiculate: whip-like: long, slender, composed of many flexible joints.

Funicule: a small, cord-like structure; especially when sheathed.

Funiculus: the main tendon of abdomen: in Hymenoptera a slender ligament connecting the propodeum to petiole on its dorsal aspect.

Furca: a fork: the anal appendage used for leaping in Thysanura; see furcula: the forked ental processes of the sternum.

Furcal orifice: see sternal into orifice.

Furcate: forked; divided nto two approximately equal divisions.

Furcula: a forked process: an osmaterium {Scanner's comment: sic. See comment under "osmaterium".}: in Collembola the spring or saltatory appendage borne by the fourth abdominal segment: in Orthoptera, a pair of backwardly directed appendages which overlie in a more or less forked position the base of the supra-anal plate.

Furred: covered with dense hair resembling fur.

Fuscescent: becoming brown; with a brown shading.

Fusco-ferruginous: brownish rust red.

Fuseo-piceous: pitch black with a brown tinge or admixture.

Fuseo-rufous: red-brown, approaching liver brown.

Fuseo-testaceous: dull reddish brown [brown ocher].

Fuscous -us: dark brown, approaching black; a plain mixture of black and red [crimson lake + black].

Fused: run together: applied when two normally separated markings become confluent and have a common outline.

Fusiform: spindle-shaped: tapering gradually to each end.

Fusulus: = spinneret, q.v.

G

Gales: the outer lobe of the maxilla, usually two-jointed, often hood-like, subject to great modifications in Hymenoptera and Diptera, and forms the coiled tongue in Lepidoptera.

Galeotheca: that part of the pupal case that covers the gales.

Gall: an abnormal swelling or excrescence on a plant, produced by an insect: = cecidium.

Gallicolous: dwellers in galls, whether as producers or inquilines.

Gallivorous: feeding upon galls or gall tissue.

Gamogenesis: reproduction through fertilization: see agamogenesis.

Ganglion -ia: a nerve centre composed of a cell mass and fibres: the white disc-like bodies connected by a double cord, lying above the ventral surface within the body and forming the centre of the nervous system.

Gasterotheca: that part of the pupa case that covers the abdomen.

Gastric: of or belonging to the belly or to the stomach.

Gastric caeca: = caecum; q.v.

Gastro-coeli: a pair of usually transverse lateral pits near the base of the second abdominal tergite in some Hymenoptera.

Gastro-ileal folds: occur in some insects at the junction of the chylific ventricle with the ileum and serve as a valve.

Gastrula: that embryonic stage resembling a sac, with an outer layer of epiblastic cells and an inner layer of hypoblastic cells.

Gastrulation: the process of forming a gastrula.

Gathering hairs: the soft, flattened, often hooked hairs on the tongue of bees and other Hymenoptera; = hooked hairs.

Gelatinous: of a jelly-like texture or consistency: viscid.

Geminate: arranged in pairs composed of two similar parts: doubled.

Gemmate -us: marked with metallic or bright colored spots.

Gemmiparous: applied to that form of asexual reproduction where new individuals arise as buds from the germ body of the parent.

Gena -ae: the cheeks; includes that portion of the head on each side below the eyes, and extends to the gular suture: in Odonata the area between the eyes and clypeus and mouth parts: in Diptera the space between the lower border of the eye and oral margin, merging into face at front and limited by the occipital margin behind.

Genal bristles: Diptera; are on the cheeks near lower corner of eye.

Generalized: primitive: containing in combination characters that are separated and specialized in other forms.

Generation: used as the equivalent of brood; q.v.

Genicular arc: Orthoptera; a curved dark marking on the posterior knee-joint.

Geniculate: knee jointed: abruptly bent in an obtuse angle.

Geniculum: a little knee or bend.

Genital armature: all the processes concerned in copulation.

Genital hamule: a little hook or plate covering the anal cavity of the male: the supra-anal or genital hook: in Lepidoptera, the uncut: in Odonata, in the plural, one or two pairs of lateral processes of the male genitalia on the ventral surface of the second abdominal segment.

Genital hook: = genital hamule.

Genitalia: the external organs of generation with all appendages.

Genital lobes: in Odonata, a pair of-backward and downwardly directed processes from the 2d abdominal segment, between which the vesicle of the penis lies.

Genital papilla: in some Smynthurids, a tubercular elevation upon which the genital aperture opens.

Genital spike: the sheath of penis which, in male Diaspinae takes the form of a long mucronate spike.

Genital tuft: in Lepidoptera; an expansible tuft of fine hair believed to be scent-producing.

Genital valve: Odonata; a chitinous piece on each side of the ovipositor, derived from the sternum of abdominal segment 9: probably = outer pair of gonapophyses.

Genoholotype: the species on which a genus is founded, whether unique or one of a series, specifically named as generic type by the author.

Genolectotype: the one species of a series selected as the type of the genus in which the describer of the genus placed it, subsequent to the description.

Genosyntype: one of a series of species upon which a genus is founded, no one species being mentioned as type.

Genus: knee; the joint between femur and tibia.

Genus: an assemblage of species agreeing in some one character or series of characters; usually considered as arbitrary and opinionative, though some consider it a natural assemblage.

Geometrid: larva which, when walking, alternately elevate and straighten the middle of their body: opposed to rectigrade; q.v.

Geodephagous: = adephagous; q.v.

Geodromica: terrestrial Heteroptera in which the antennae are not concealed.

Geophilous: living on the ground: species that live on the surface or come freely into contact with it.

Germanium: an ovary: that portion of an ovarian tube containing the cell elements.

Germ-ball: reproductive cells in larvae from which, exceptionally, young may develop as buds.

Germ-band or Germinal band: that portion of a young embryo which is to become the future insect, when it is in the form of a band or strap and may or may not show the division into the future segments.

Gerontogeic: belonging to the old world: see neogeic.

Gibba: a rounded protuberance or prominence.

Gibbous: hump-backed; protuberant: said of a macula when it resembles a moon more than half full.

Gibbus: when the whole surface forms a hump or obtuse cone.

Gills: respiratory structures which function in water; distinguished as true or blood gills where contained blood conveys the absorbed oxygen from the gill to the tissues, and as tracheal gills when this conveyance is by contained tracheae.

Gilvus: = flavus; q.v.

Ginglymus: a hinge joint that permits flexion in one plane.

Gizzard: a pouch-like structure between the crop and chylific ventricle furnished with chitinous teeth or plates, in which the food is prepared for the digestive juices by grinding or merely sifting = cardia.

Glaber-rous: smooth; free from all vestiture.

Gland: a cellular sac which separates or secretes from the blood specific portions to produce characteristic products - e.g. wax, saliva, silk, etc.

Gland-bearing prominence: in Diaspinae a prominence on the margin, bear-ing a gland opening on the dorsal surface.

Gland orifice: in Coccidae, the external opening through which a gland pours its secretions.

Gland spines: in Coccidae; spiny appendages, each of which is supplied with a single gland whose opening is at the tip.

Glandular: having the character or function of a gland: used as descriptive of specialized hairs, spines or other processes.

Glassy: transparent; glass-like in appearance.

Glaucus: shining sea-green: whitish blue inclining to gray lavender.

Globose: formed like a globe or sphere.

Globulin; an albumenoid proteid compound formed in the blood of insects.

Glochis: a barbed point.

Glomerate: congregated or massed together.

Glossa: the inner lobe of second maxilla, corresponding to the lacing of first maxilla: loosely used as a synonym for tongue: especially applied to the coiled structure of the Lepidoptera; see also ligula.

Glossarium: Diptera; the labrum-epipharynx; q.v.

Glossata: a Fabrician term for Lepidoptera.

Glossate: furnished with a spiral tongue.

Glossotheca: that part of the pupa which covers the tongue.

Glutinose -ous: slimy; viscid.

Gnathal: relating or pertaining to the jaws.

Gnathite: a jaw or jaw-like appendage; in the plural, the mouth parts.

Gnathochilarium: a plate formed by the labial structures.

Gnathopoda: the arthropods: the first pair of legs; especially applied in crustaceans: mouth feet.

Goffered: a surface with regular impressions, closely set, and separated by narrow ridges: reticulated.

Gonapophyses: three pairs of processes in the Orthoptera, one arising from the eighth and two from the ninth abdominal segment op the ventral surface. They appear to = the rhabdites composing the ovipositor of other insects.

Gonyodon: a tooth-like articulated process at the apex of the femur in some Noctuidae.

Gonytheca: articulating surface of femur to which the tibia is joined.

Gorgeret: the barbed sting of the honey bee.

Gracile: slender; graceful.

Gradate -vim: one grade or step at a time: to arrange in a series: to blend so as to merge one into the other - e.g. colors.

Gradate veins: a transverse series of veins, each before or beyond the next.

Grammineus: grass-green [apple green].

Granose: like a string of beads; moniliform.

Granulated: covered with small grains.

Granule: a little grain or grain-like elevation.

Granulose: roughened with granules or made up of distinct grains.

Gregarious: living in societies or communities; but not social.

Grège: raw silk, including the gummy outer layer, as spun by a caterpillar.

Grès: the gummy layer surrounding the silk thread spun by a caterpillar.

Gressorious -vial: with legs fitted for walking: in Lepidoptera; the anterior legs aborted, the others fitted for walking.

Griscent: ashen gray.

Griseus: light gray; a mixture of white and black [gray].

Group: a division of classification used indefinitely for a series of allied species, genera or larger assemblages.

Grouped glands: see circumgenital glands.

Grub: an insect larva: a term loosely applied, but more specifically to larvae of Coleopteran and Hymenoptera.

Guanin: a white amorphous compound which occurs in the transparent areas of some wings, giving a milky tinge, and is also found in the photogenic organs of Lampyridae: an excretory substance, composition C5H5N5O (von Furth).

Guest: applied to those insects that live in nests or dwelling places of other species, not necessarily at the expense of the host.

Gula: the throat: that sclerite forming the central portion of the head beneath, extending from the submental to the posterior margin, and laterally bounded by the genae.

Gular peduncle: in Coleopteran = submental peduncle.

Gular suture: the line of division between the gulag or throat and the gene or cheeks.

Gulf strip: see semitropical or gulf strip.

Gullet: = oesophagus; q.v.

Gulo-mental: includes the region covered by the gulag and mentum.

Gustatory: elating to the sense of taste.

Gutta: a light spot on a dark ground.

Guttate: with light spots or drops on a dark ground.

Gymnocerata: insects with freely movable, conspicuous antennae: see cryptocerata.

Gymnogastra: Hymenoptera; species in which the venter is visible: see cryptogastra.

Gymnoptera: species with membranous wings not covered with scales.

Gynandromorphic: when an individual of one sex exhibits on one lateral half the organic characters of the other, more or less completely.

Gyri-cerebrales: lobes of the oesophageal ganglion of the embryo, connected with the primary lobe: = stalked bodies.

H

Habena: a fascia on the thorax.

Habit -us: the port or aspect: used to express a resemblance in general appearance.

Habitat; abbreviated Hab.: the region or place which an insect inhabits or where it was taken.

Haemoglobin: the coloring matter of blood which serves to carry oxygen.

Haemolymph: the watery blood or lymph-like nutritive fluid of the lower invertebrates.

Haemoxanthine: a dissolved albuminoid in the insect blood, which has both a respiratory and nutritive function.

Hair: a slender, flexible filament of equal diameter.

Hairy: covered or clothed with hair.

Halophilous: species living in salt marshes, or near the sea.

Halterata: the Diptera.

Halteres: the poisers or balancers: capitate movable filaments in Diptera, situated one on each side of the thorax and representing rudimentary hind wings.

Halteriptera: the Diptera.

Hamule -us: furnished with hooks, or bent like a hook.

Hammock: the hammock-like covering of the caterpillars of certain moths. Hamule: a little hook.

Hamuli: Odonata; one or two pairs of hooked processes projecting from the ventral surface of the 2d abdominal segment of the male; usually termed genital hamules: in Hymenoptera; minute hooks on the anterior margin of secondaries used to unite them in flight with the inner margin of primaries: in tree crickets, hook-like processes of the male genitalia.

Hamus: Lepidoptera; a hook or loop attached to the under side of costal margin of primaries near base, to receive the frenulum of male moths.

Harpago -ones: the inner basal lobes of the clasping organs of d culicids also, more generally = harpes.

Harpes: the lateral pieces of the male genitalia in Lepidoptera, used as clasping organs: also applied to the corneous hooks often borne by these lateral pieces, which are then termed valves; see clasper: in culicids an articulated process, sometimes jointed, at the base of inner side of side-piece, below and exterior to the harpagones.

Hastate: halbert-shaped: excavated at base and sides but with spreading lobes or angles.

Hastiform: = hastate.

Hatched: closely marked with numerous short, transverse lines.

Hatching spines: = egg burster; q.v.

Haustellate: formed for sucking: applied chiefly to mouth structures.

Haustellum: a sucker: applied to that portion of the mouth of a sucking insect through which liquid food is drawn into the gullet.

Head: the first or anterior region of the insect body, articulated at its base to the thorax, bearing the mouth structures and antennae. It is now believed to be made up of seven primitive segments, named in order: 1, the ocular or protocerebral; 2, the antenna or deutocerebral; 3, second antenna or tritocerebral; 4, mandibular; 5, superlingual; 6, maxillary; 7, labial or 2d maxillary.

Head vesicle: in Diptera, = ptilinum, q.v.

Heart: the dorsal vessel or tubular structure divided into chambers, lying just beneath the dorsal, which serves to propel the blood and controls the circulation.

Heautotype: = autotype; q.v.

Helcodermatus: a surface with ulcer-like depressions: applied also to the boring or tearing spines of pupae.

Heliciform: in the form of a spiral snail shell: applied to the cases of some Trichoptera.

Helocerous: with clavate antennae.

Helvolus: tawny or dully reddish yellow.

Helvus: honey yellow [brown pink + chrome lemon].

Hemelytra: a modification of the anterior wings of Heteroptera, coriaceous at base, membranous at tip, not meeting in a straight line at the middle: more specifically applied to the corium; q.v.: also used for the tegmina of Orthoptera.

Hemi: as a prefix, means half.

Hemimeroptera: an obsolete term for Hemiptera.

Hemimetabolous: manifesting an incomplete metamorphosis, but with a marked difference between the stages: specifically the Ephemerida, Odonata and Perlidae. {Scanner's comment: nowadays applied to far more orders, generally to those that undergo a marked metamorphosis, but without a pupal stage.}

Hemiptera: half-winged: an ordinal term applied to insects in which the mouth parts consist of four lancets inclosed in a jointed beak or rostrum; metamorphosis incomplete: the primaries may be of uniform texture throughout (Homoptera) or may be thickened at base, membranous at tip (Heteroptera).

Hemispheric: like the half of a globe or sphere.

Hepaticolor: liver-brown [dragon's blood].

Hepatic pouches: applied to caeca pouches; q.v.

Herbivorous: feeding upon plant tissue: a leaf feeder.

Heremetabola: with slight or incomplete metamorphosis, but with a resting stage at the end of the nymph life; specifically the Cicadidae.

Hermaphrodite: an individual in which the characters of both sexes are combined.

Hetero: as a prefix, unequal; different from.

Heterocera: Lepidoptera in which the antenna are of any form other than clubbed at tip: opposed to Rhopalocera.

Heterochrome: of different color: applied to species in which there are two color forms of one sex, one of which is like (homoeochrome), the opposite sex, as in certain Odonata and Lepidoptera.

Heterochrony: an irregular development in point of time, a later stage becoming evident before one that is earlier in ordinary course.

Heterogamy: applied to those cases in which two sexual or a sexual and parthenogenetic generation alternate.

Heterogeneous: a mixture of different forms; abnormal.

Heterogeny: the alternation of sexual and parthenogenetic generations.

Heterogyna: the ants: referring to the different kinds of females, - queens and workers, - as distinguished from males.

Heteromera: Coleopteran in which the anterior and middle tarsi are 5-jointed and the posterior are 4-jointed.

Heteromerous: having an unequal number of tarsal joints on the feet.

Heterometabola: differing among themselves in metamorphosis; but not manifesting abrupt stages.

Heteromorphous: the metamorphosis complete, in abrupt stages, the larva unlike the adult.

Heteronomous: if two parts, compared with each other, are of different quality: differing in development or function.

Heteropalpi: palpi with a different number of joints in male and female, as in some Trichoptera.

Heteroptera: an ordinal term applied to that series of Hemiptera in which the anterior wings differ in texture from the posterior, and the different regions of primaries differ in texture.

Heteropterous: with wings of different texture in different parts.

Heterotypical: a genus, described from more than one species, these differing in structure,

Hexachaetous: Diptera in which the mouth structures have six piercing setae.

Hexanephric: with six kidneys, or structures serving as such.

Hexapoda: tracheate arthropods with head, thorax and abdomen distinct, and only six legs in the adult stage: the true insects.

Hexapodal -ous: provided with six feet.

Hians: gaping.

Hibernaculum: a tent or sheath made out of a leaf or other material in which a larva hides or hibernates.

Hibernate: to pass the winter in a dormant condition.

Hicks' bottles: {Scanner's comment: sic} flask-shaped pits or depressions in the antennae of bees and ants: supposed to be the organs of hearing.

Hind angle: in primaries of Lepidoptera, is that point where inner and outer margin meet: = anal angle of secondaries.

Hind-body: the abdomen.

Hind-gut: the intestinal canal from the end of chylific ventricle to the Anus, including the malpighian tubules and anal glands.

Hind-head: Mallophaga; that part of head behind mandibles and antennae.

Hind-intestine: = hind-gut.

Hinge: of maxilla = cardo; q.v.: the point of articulation of a movable joint.

Hips: the coxa; q.v.

Hirsute: clothed with long, strong hair; shaggy.

Hispid: bristly: sparsely set with short, stiff hair.

Histoblast: the morphological unit or cell characteristic of a particular tissue.

Histogenesis: the formation and development of tissue.

Histolysis: the degeneration and dissolution of organic tissue.

Hoary: covered with a fine, white, silvery pubescence: pruinose q.v.

Holometabolous: having a complete transformation; with egg, larval, pupal and adult stages distinctly separated.

Holopneustic: having many pairs of open stigmata.

Holoptic: Diptera in which the eyes of male are contiguous between vertex and antennae: see dichoptic.

Holosericeus: with short, dense, silky hair, giving a satiny lustre.

Holotype: the unique type: = type; q.v.

Homelytra: elytra of similar or equal substance.

Homo: prefix = the same; similar.

Homochronic heredity: inheritance at corresponding periods of life.

Homochronous: changes in an organism which appear in the offspring at the same age at which they did in the parent.