Evergreen Natural History Database

Glossary

Some of these definitions are from Goulet & Huber, 1993 and Michener et al., 1994. All of the illustrations are original, made by the author of this site, Matthew P. Kweskin.

Abdomen
This is the rear-most body section. It includes the reproductive structures of the insect.

Carina
A ridge in a sclerite.

Face
The region between the anterior margin of the compound eyes, from the lower margin of the ocelli to the bottom of the clypeus (Goulet and Huber, 1993).

Flagellomere
A segment of the antennal flaggellum. Male acuelate Hymenoptera have eleven flagellomeres, females have ten.

Flagellum
The long, whip like, section of the antennae, it is made up of flagellomeres.

Gaster
In Hymenoptera, the rear-most body section. It is made up of most of the abdominal segments. The first true abdominal segment is actually clumped with the thoracic segments in the middle body section.

Gastral sterna
(pl. sterna) These are the chitinous plates of the under side of a gastral segment.

Gastral tergum
(pl. terga) These are the chitinous plates of the upper side of a gastral segment.

Head
The front body section. It contains many of the sensory structures, as well as the mouthparts.

Hypopygium
The underside of the last (sixth) gastral sternum.

Malar space
The malar area is the area from the bottom of the compound eye to the base of the mandibles. The malar length is the shortest distance from the bottom of the compound eye to the base of the mandibles. The malar width is the width of the base of the mandibles (Michener et al., 1994).

Ocelli
(sing. ocellus) These are the three simple eyes found at the top of the head between the compound eyes.

Pile
The thick layer of setae (hairs) covering Bombus.

Thoracic pleuron
(pl. pleura) The lateral sides of the thorax (Goulet and Huber, 1993).

Scutellum
The dorsal thoracic sclerite behind the Scutum. (The dorsal thoracic pile has been partially removed in the specimen illustrated below.)

Scutum
The sclerite covering much of the dorsum of the thorax. It is posterior to the pronotum, and anterior to the scutellum. (The dorsal thoracic pile has been partially removed in the specimen illustrated below.)

Tegulae
A small sclerite that covers the base of the front wings (Goulet and Huber, 1993).

Thorax
This is the middle body section of insects. The wings and legs are attached to segments of this section.

Last updated Monday, July 24, 2006, by Lisa Ferrier