Q.
Concerning insects that fold their wings back, overlapping
them (more or less) flat over the abdomen, is there a
customary order in which they are folded, or is it
simply happenstance as to whether the last (top) folded
wing is a left or right wing? Sincerely, Roger
A.
Roger, I'm going to give you a couple of pieces of information that
I got from two stonefly taxonomists in response to your question.
Dr. Richard Bauman, BYU, told me that he was
on a field trip with some students and they
were observing a large hatch of Hesperoperla
pacifica. As the insects crawled out of the
water and began to emerge from their exuviae, the
wings were held upright as they began to pump
blood into them. When they were full, the
insects seemed to 'stretch' the wings, and
then folded them - the left one first and
then the right one.
Dr. Ken Stewart, No. Texas Univ., sent me the
following: "Aquatic insects that fold their
wings over the back, such as Plecoptera, have
defined fold lines. For the forewings, this
is almost exclusively at the "anal fold line"
between the cubital and anal longitudinal veins.
For the hindwings, that are usually more complexly
folded like a fan, there are several foldlines between
longitudinal veins." Unfortunately, Ken didn't
say anything about which side was folded first.
If you have a question, please feel free to contact me.
~ C. E. (Bert) Cushing, aka Streamdoctor
105 W. Cherokee Dr.
Estes Park, CO 80517
Phone: 970-577-1584
Email: streamdoctor@aol.com
The 'Stream Doctor' is a retired professional stream ecologist and
author, now living in the West and spending way too much time
fly-fishing. You are invited to submit questions relating to
anything stream related directly to him for use in this Q & A Feature
at streamdoctor@aol.com.
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