Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology Part 77

Slug: in general, any larva that has a slimy viscid appearance, and the body closely applied to the food plant: more specifically, the larvae of certain saw-flies and of some Coleoptera.

S. M. inters.p.a.ce: sub-median inters.p.a.ce in the primaries of Lepidoptera, includes the s.p.a.ce between the median and sub-median veins; (cubitus and 1st a.n.a.l, Comst.).

Smaltinus: a dull grayish blue.

Smaragdinus: emerald green [pale green].

Smooth: a surface without elevations or indentations.

Snout: the prolongation of the head in Rhynchophora at the end of which the mouth parts are situated: see rostrum.

Social: living in communities: more especially those species in which undeveloped or worker forms occur and where the colony has a single female head.

Soldiers: in termites; forms s.e.xually undeveloped, in which the mandibles are pincer-like and the head is much enlarged: worker majors in certain ants.

Solid: applied to an organ usually jointed, when these joints form into one ma.s.s; e.g. the capitulum of certain clavate antennae.

Solitary-arius: occurring singly or in pairs; not in colonies.

Somatic: relating to the body, or abdomen.

Somatotheca: that part of pupa covering abdominal rings:= gasterotheca.

Somite: = arthromere.

Sonifaction: the production of sound: = stridulation; q.v.

Sonoran faunal areas: see upper and lower Sonoran.

Sonorific: sound producing: applied to stridulating organs.

Sordid: dirty; dull.

Spadiceous: bay brown [dragon's blood + brown ochre].

Spado: the worker or neuter in bees and ants.

Spa.r.s.e: scattered: single hairs, scales or sculptures set well apart.

Spatha: a median piece in male genitalia of aculeate Hymenoptera, covering the bases of the sagitte.

Spatula: the breast bone (q.v.) of cecidomyid larvae.

Spatulate: rounded and broad at top, attenuate at base.

Specialization: the adaptation of an organ to a definite purpose, or of an organism to fit a determinate environment.

Species: an aggregation of individuals alike in appearance and structure, mating freely and producing young that themselves mate freely and bear fertile offspring resembling each other and their parents: a species includes all its varieties and races.

Specific character: a feature common to all individuals of a species, by means of which they may be distinguished from all other individuals of other species: = essential character.

Specular: mirror-like: transparent.

Specular membrane: in male Cicada, the inner or posterior mirror-like membrane of the sound-organ: = mirror.

Speculum: a transparent area or spot on wings of some Lepidoptera; the gla.s.sy areas at base of tegmina in male Orthoptera that serve as sounding boards: a spot on the neck of some caterpillars.

Sperm: the seminal fluid: in plural form is sometimes used as = spermatozoa; q.v.

Spermatheca: = spermatotheca; q.v.

Spermatid: the final cells which are converted without further division into spermatozoa: they arise by division of the second spermatocytes (Wilson).

Spermatocytes: the cells arising from the spermatogonia. The primary spermatocyte arises by growth of one of the last generation of spermatogonia. By its division are formed two secondary spermatocytes, each of which give rise to two spermatids (Wilson).

Spermatogenesis: the development of spermatozoa.

Spermatogonia: the descendants of the primordial germ cells in the male. Each ultimate spermatogonium typically gives rise to four spermatozoa.

Spermatophora: a sac or case containing spermatozoa.

Spermatotheca: the sac or reservoir in the female, that receives the sperm during coition: = spermatheca and receptaculum seminis.

Spermatozoon-zoa: the male cell or cells which, by uniting with the ova, fertilize them.

Spherical: in the form of a sphere: a body in which all diameters are equal.

Spherule: a minute sphere or globule.

Spicula: a slender needle-like process: e.g. the sting in bees: also employed as = ovipositor: q.v.

Spiculiform: like a slender, needle-like process.

Spiculum: a small spicule or thin, pointed process.

Spinate: produced into an ac.u.minate spine.

Spindle-shaped: cylindrical, elongate, thicker in the middle, tapering to each end: fusiform.

Spine: a sharp process: in Coccidae there are two, one each side of each segment of the pygidium.

Spiniferous: bearing, or clothed with spines.

Spiniform: in the form or shape of a spine.

Spinneret: the ligula in bombycid and some other larvae, modified for silk spinning: any organ consisting of an internal tube, terminating in a pore, spine or process, producing a silky or waxy fibre: in the plural, the organs concerned in the emission of the silky or cottony filaments of which the scales or sacs of Coccidae are produced: = fusulus.

Spinose -ous -ed: set with acute processes or spines.