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Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology · John Bernhard Smith — chapter 110 of 164 · ~487 words · public domain

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Pinnate: feather-like; cleft, like the wings of Alucita: with markings resembling a feather: with stiff hairs or thorny processes occupying opposite sides of a thin shank.

Pinnatifid: divided into feathers, as when wings are cleft nearly to the base.

Pistazinus: yellowish green, with a slight brownish tinge [pale green with a little burnt sienna].

Plaga: a spot, stripe or streak of color; a longitudinal spot of irregular form.

Plaited: longitudinally folded or laid in pleats.

Planate: with a flattened surface.

Plane: level, flat; applied to a surface.

Planipennia: applied to Neuroptera in which the wings are large and laid flat on the body wnen at rest; Sialidae, Myrmeleonidae, etc.

Planta -ae: the basal joint of the posterior tarsus in pollen gathering Hymenoptera: the soles of the posterior tarsal joints: the anal clasping legs of caterpillars.

Plantigrade: species that walk on the entire foot, not on the claws alone.

Plantula: a lobe of the divided tarsal pulvillus; one of the soles or climbing cushions of the foot: see arolium; pulviglus.

Plaques: the small leathery hemelytra in some Naucorids.

Plasma: the liquid portion of animal fluids and cells.

Plasticity: the capacity for being formed, moulded or developed.

Plate: any broad flattened piece or sclerite: = squame, in Coccidae.

Platelet: a little plate or sclerite of chitin in a membrane.

Plates: in Coccidae, the squames; q.v.: in male Homoptera, a pair of pieces following the last full ventral segment; usually preceded by a short piece, - the valve.

Platyptera: flat and broad-winged: an ordinal term applied to insects with four net-veined wings, secondaries longitudinally folded beneath primaries; mouth mandibulate; prothorax free; transformations complete: Psocidae, Termitidae, Perlidae and Mallophaga. {Scanner's comment: These four groups are now placed in totally separate orders, and not families as these names imply}

Plecoptera or Plectoptera: plaited winged: an ordinal term applied to net-veined insects in which the secondaries are longitudinally folded beneath primaries; mouth mandibulate; body loosely jointed; prothorax free; metamorphosis incomplete: the term Plecoptera was used by Brauer for Perlidae; Plectoptera by Packard for the Ephemerida: there has been some confusion since, and both have been used in the Brauer sense.

Pleon: = abdomen; q.v.

Pleopoda: abdominal legs of larva: posterior legs of an adult.

Plesiobiosis: see symbiosis.

Plesiotype: any specimen identified with a described or named species by a person other than the describer.

Pleura: plural of pleuron or pleurum: the lateral sclerites between the dorsal and sternal portion of the thorax: in general, the sides of the body between the dorsum and sternum.

Pleural areas: on the metanotum of some Hymenoptera, the three spaces between the lateral and pleural carinae; the 1st or anterior = spiracular area; the 2d or central = middle pleural; the 3d or posterior = angular area.

Pleural carinae: in Hymenoptera, extend along the exterior margin of the metanotum.

Pleural pieces: the lateral sclerites of the thorax; see pleura.

Pleurites: the sclerites into which the pleurum is divided.

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