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Most phylogenetically advanced insects have two pairs of wings located on the second and third thoracic segments. [1]: 22–24 Insects are the only invertebrates to have developed flight capability, and this has played an important part in their success. Insect flight is not very well understood, relying on turbulent aerodynamic effects. The ...
Two thoracic segments are fused into the head; one thoracic segment is in the posterior tagma. Other kinds of copepod also have two tagmata but formed by different segments. The development of distinct tagmata is believed to be a feature of the evolution of segmented animals, especially arthropods. In the ancestral arthropod, the body was made ...
The metathorax is the segment that bears the hindwings in most winged insects, though sometimes these may be reduced or modified, as in the flies , in which they are reduced to form halteres, or flightless, as in beetles , in which they may be completely absent even though forewings are still present. All adult insects possess legs on the ...
Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax ), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwings , respectively, though a few insects lack hindwings, even rudiments.
While the tergum is positioned on the top (dorsal), and the sternum on the bottom (ventral), the pleuron is positioned to the side (lateral). The terms pro-, meso- and metapleuron are used respectively for the pleura of the first, second and third thoracic segments. A pleuron usually consists of a epimeron and an episternum. [2]
The notum (plural nota) is the dorsal portion of an insect's thoracic segment, or the dorsal surface of the body of nudibranch gastropods. The word "notum" is always applied to dorsal structures; in other words structures that are part of the back of an animal, as opposed to being part of the animal's ventral surface, or underside.
In hymenopterans of the suborder Apocrita (wasps, bees and ants), the mesosoma consists of the three thoracic segments and the first abdominal segment (the propodeum). For historical reasons, in ants it is commonly referred to by the alternative name alitrunk. [1] [2] [3]
The mesothorax is the segment that bears the forewings in all winged insects, though sometimes these may be reduced or modified, as in beetles or Dermaptera, in which they are sclerotized to form the elytra ("wing covers"), and the Strepsiptera, in which they are reduced to form halteres that attach to the mesonotum. [1]