Fig. 176.—Abdomen of Termes flavipes: 1–10, the ten tergites; 1–9, the nine urites; c, cercopod.
Fig. 177.—End of abdomen of Panorpa debilis drawn out, the chitinous pieces shaded: L, lateral, D, dorsal view; c, jointed cercopoda.—Gissler del.
In the abdomen the segments are more equally developed than elsewhere, retaining the simple annular shape of embryonic life, and from their generalized nature their number can be readily distinguished (Fig. 176). The tergal and sternal pieces of each segment are of nearly the same size, the tergal often overlapping the sternal (though in the Coleoptera the sternites are larger than the tergites), while there are no pleural pieces, the lateral region being membranous when visible and bearing the stigmata (Fig. 177, L). In the terminal segments beyond the genital outlet, however, there is a reduction in and loss of segments, especially in the adults of the metabolous orders, notably the Panorpidæ (Fig. 177), Diptera, and aculeate Hymenoptera; in the Chrysididæ only three or four being usually visible, the distal segments being reduced and telescoped inward.
The typical number of abdominal segments (uromeres), i.e. that occurring in each order of insects, is ten; and in certain families of Orthoptera, eleven. In the embryos, however, of the most generalized winged orders, Orthoptera (Fig. 199), Dermaptera, and Odonata, eleven can be seen, while Heymons has recently detected twelve in blattid and Forficula embryos, and he claims that in the nymphs of certain Odonata there are twelve segments, the twelfth being represented by the anal or lateral plates. It thus appears that even in the embryo condition of the more generalized winged insects, the number of uromeres is slightly variable.
We have designated the abdomen as the urosome; the abdominal segments of insects and other Arthropods as uromeres, and the sternal sclerites as urosternites, farther condensed into urites. (See Third Report U. S. Entomological Commission, 1883, pp. 307, 324, 435, etc.)
Fig. 178.—Nymph of the pear tree Psylla, with its glandular hairs.—After Slingerland. Bull. Div. Ent. U. S. Dep. Agr.
The reduction takes place at the end of the abdomen, and is usually correlated with the presence or absence of the ovipositor. In the more generalized insects, as the cockroaches, the tenth segment is, in the female, completely aborted, the ventral plate being atrophied, while the dorsal plate is fused during embryonic life, as Cholodkowsky has shown, with the ninth tergite, thus forming the suranal plate.
In the advanced nymph of Psylla the hinder segments of the abdomen appear to be fused together, the traces of segmentation being obliterated, though the segments are free in the first stage and in the imago (Fig. 178). It thus recalls the abdomen of spiders, of Limulus, and the pygidium of trilobites.