Identifier: insectsabroadbe00wood (find matches)
Title: Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889 Metcalf Collection (North Carolina State University). NCRS
Subjects: Insects
Publisher: London : Longmans, Green, and Co
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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g greatness, and the latter con-spicuousness. As may be seen from the illustration, in which,for want of space, only one side of the insect is fully drawn, thisis a very large creature, or rather it spreads over a very largespace. No more material is used in its structure than in thatof the Dragon Flies, which have been already described. Butthat material is so attenuated, both in length and width, thatthe insect which is formed from it is really a large andimportant one. A more conspicuous insect can hardly be imagined. Its head 362 INSECTS ABROAD. and thorax are of no great size, and if those portions of the bodyalone were seen, anyone Mould attribute them to a Dragon FJyof ordinary size, scarcely larger than our own blue and greenDemoiselle. But the abdomen is drawn out to such a wonderful length,being nearly six times as long as the head and thorax together,and the wings are so wide and ample, that it is really wonderfulhow the small thorax can contain muscular power sufficient to
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Fi&. 177. — MfgalciiiitliUb bievistignia(Dark bmwn patch on the wings ) work these enormous wings, to sustain the leverage of the longabdomen, to control the powerful and tightly-clinging legs, andyet to afford sufficient space for the all-permeating air-vessels,the gullet—which is in constant requisition—and the greatnerve-centres which supply all the body with sensation andmotive power. No one who has not been in the habit of dis-secting insects can appreciate even the mechanical difficulties INSECT MF.CHANICS. 363 which are here overcome; and the best mechanician that theworld has known must stand humbly amazed before such anastonishing application of mechanics to a mere insect. The wings are translucent, with the exception of a broadwaving band of dark brown near the tip. Perhaps the readermay have noticed, and if he be an entomologist he must know,that Dragon Flies have upon the outer edge of the upper wingsan oblong black spot. This spot is technically called the stigm

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