Observations on the habits and natural surroundings of insects made during the 'Skeat expedition' to the Malay peninsula, 1899-1900 / by Nelson Annandale.
- Nelson Annandale
- Date:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Observations on the habits and natural surroundings of insects made during the 'Skeat expedition' to the Malay peninsula, 1899-1900 / by Nelson Annandale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
34/36 page 868
![the insvect might be bj its legs), it is obvious that the whole structure would flj off into the air at a tangent; only supposing that the pressure was slightly oblique at any point. 1 have no doubt that this is substantially what occurs in the case of Jlotinus ; but in the living insect the action is far too rapid for the eye to discriminate its details, and dead specimens cannot be made to leap in this way, because it is impossible to force the legs to perform their part of the action. In two specimens of Hotinus, which I observed on tree-trunks at Aring, the wings were spread after the insects had leapt into the air, but not immediately they left their perch. Both of them distinctly bent down their heads before they jumped. The nose is perfectly hollow, and does not appear to contain any muscle. It differs, of course, from the whalebone in respect of its hollowness, and also in that it is only flexible at one point. In specimens preserved in spirit it is largely filled with liquid, but contains a bubble of air, which naturally rises to the tip when the apparatus is in its resting position, and runs towards its base when the head is lowered. When I had made the discovery in my first specimen of Hotinns^ I examined some Bulgorid larvae, almost certainly those of Pyro'ps nobilif!, which had been brought to me by a native at Ban Sai Kau in Nawnchik, and which I had preserved in spirit. The nose was well developed in these, although the abdomen was still small and unexpanded and the wings as yet mere stumps. I found that the joint was present in these specimens also, and still retained a certain amount of springiness, though they had been dead for a month. Since coming home, I have been enabled, by the kindness of Professor Boulton, to examine dried specimens of twenty-six species of long-nosed Bulgorida?, belonging to nine genera. In individuals of sixteen of these species 1 am able to distinguish a crease running across the nose in exactly the same position as it does in my specimen of Hotimis. All of the remaining ten species in the Hope Collection, of which species Pyrops nohilis is one, have either comparatively short, spiny, or otherwise peculiar noses. I have no doubt that the joint would be found in them also, were fresh specimens examined ; even in my larvae, in which it is still flexible, there is no external sign of its exist- ence except a slight translucency of the integument. The members of the bulbous-nosed American genus Fidyora probably use their heads in the same manner as the less highly modified Oriental forms. There is a deep hollow across the noses of the former which seems to correspond to the crease in that of Hotinus; and I have satisfied myself at any rate that a certain very limited flexibility exists at this point even in dried specimens. What is wanted is a series of instantaneous photographs from life. Malay Name.—At Biserat Hotians spinolcB goes by the name of Raja Legeh^^^ but this is probably a corruption of some more direct appellation. [32]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22406451_0036.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
