Observations on the habits and natural surroundings of insects made during the 'Skeat expedition' to the Malay peninsula, 1899-1900 / by Nelson Annandale.

  • Annandale, Nelson, 1876-1924.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

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.

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    expansions of the femur of the posterior limbs had that semi- opalescent, semi-crystalline appearance that is caused in flower- petals by a purely structural arrangement of liquid globules or of empty cells. On the grasping-limbs and on the extremities of the other pairs the absence of this peculiar sheen was compensated for by the translucency of the integument and the tissues—a trans- lucency more proper to Ceelenterates than to an air-breathing insect. The petals of Melastoma p&lyantTmm.^ the flower with which the Mantis was found associated, are of mauve-pink on the upper surface, slightly darker in tone than that of the limbs of the insect. Their low^er surface, and consequently the visible surface of the older flower-buds, is considerably darker than the upper, more lihe that of the Mantis’s abdomen. The leaves are of the same shade of green as the bar across its thorax. The flow^er w’as in bloom in Fig. 1. Pupa of Hymenopus hicornis on inflorescence of Melastoma polyanthum., (Photographed from life.) The Mantis is seated in an upright position, with the abdomen flexed back- wards. The photograph represents it s it is seen on a level with the eye, and shows the horn-like eyes of the insect (at the apex of figure),, the V-shaped bar on the thorax, the predatory limbs folded in front of the body, the petal-like expansions of the femora of the 2nd and 3rd pairs of legs arranged on the flowers, and the ventral surface and dark tip of the abdomen. The tarsus of the left leg of the 3rd pair is seen stretching out from beneath the expansion of the femur to a seed'-vessel of the plant. [4]