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Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology · John Bernhard Smith — chapter 91 of 164 · ~467 words · public domain

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Microchaetae: small bristles, as opposed to macrochaetae, in Diptera.

Microergates: the dwarf workers among ants.

Micron: the unit of microscopic measurement = 001 mm.: represented by the symbol mu: the symbol mu mu represents .001 of a micron. {Scanner's note: the mu mu notation would no longer be valid.}

Micropterous: small winged.

Micropterism: the tendency to produce small wings; applied to a line of variation.

Micropyles: minute openings in the egg, through which spermatozoa enter.

Microsomites: small secondary rings or somites of the macrosomites in the embryo, which afterward become the body segments.

Microthorax: a supposed thoracic ring between the head and prothorax.

Middle apical area: = internal area; q.v.

Middle field: = discoidal field; q.v.

Middle lobes: of pronotum in Orthoptera; see lobes.

Middle pleural area: in Hymenoptera; the median of the three areas between lateral and pleural carinae: = 2d pleural area.

Mid-dorsal thoracic Carina: a ridge or elevated line at the meeting of the mesepisterna in Odonata.

Mid-gut: the chylific ventricle with the caecal glands, tubes or pouches.

Mid-intestine: = mid-gut.

Migrants: applied to that brood of plant lice which flies from one to an alternate food plant: any forms that fly from the place where they were born for food or other purposes.

MM.: = Millimeter: .001 meter = .039 of an inch: roughly 25 mm. are counted to an inch in measuring insects. {Scanner's comment: modern usage is lower case. So: mm.}

Mimetic: when a species mimics or resembles another or some other object in appearance; but not in structure and other characters.

Mimicry: strictly, the resemblance of one animal to another not closely related animal, living in the same locality; often loosely used to denote also resemblance to plants and inanimate objects: Batesian mimicry is where one of two similar species is distasteful (so-called model), the other not distasteful (so-called mimic);

Muellerian mimicry is where both species are distasteful.

Mines: applied to galleries or burrows between upper and under surface of leaf tissue, when made by larvae: they are linear, when they are narrow and only a little winding; serpentine, when they are curved or coiled, becoming gradually larger to a head-like end: trumpet-mines, when they start small and enlarge rapidly at tip; blotch mines, when they are irregular blotches tentiform, when the blotch mines throw the leaf into a fold on one side.

Miniate -us: of the color of red lead [vermilion with a slight admixture of dragon's blood].

Mirror: in Cicada; see specular membrane.

Mitosoma: the middle piece of a developing spermatozoon.

Mobile: movable: having the power of motion.

Model: see mimicry.

Modioliform: globular, truncated at both ends; like the hub of a wheel.

Mola or Molar: the ridged or roughened grinding surface of the mandible: when the mandible is compound, the molar corresponds to the subgalea of maxilla.

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