Читать книгу A Text-book of Entomology онлайн

168 страница из 232

Herold also says that as the caterpillar grows larger, and also the wing-germs, “the larval skin in the region under which they lie hidden is spotted and swollen,” and he adds in a footnote: “This is the case with all smooth caterpillars marked with bright colors. In dark and hairy caterpillars the swelling of the skin through the growth of the underlying wing-germs is less distinct or not visible at all” (pp. 29, 30).

It should be added that Malpighi, Swammerdam, and also Réaumur had detected the rudiments of the wings in the caterpillar just before pupation under the old larval skin. Lyonet (1760) also describes and figures the four wing-germs situated in the second and third thoracic segments, but was uncertain as to their nature. Each of these masses, he says, is “situated in the fatty body without being united to it, and is attached to the skin in a deep fold which it makes there.” He could throw no certain light on their nature, but says: “their number and situation leads to the supposition that they may be the rudiments of the wings of the moth” (pp. 449, 450).