In Apis according to Bütschli (No. [405]) all the abdominal segments are provided with appendages, which always remain in a very rudimentary condition. All trace of them as well as of the thoracic appendages is lost by the time the embryo is hatched. In the phytophagous Hymenoptera the larva is provided with 9‑11 pairs of legs.
In the embryo of Lepidoptera there would appear from Kowalevsky’s figures to be rudiments of ten pairs of post-thoracic appendages. In the caterpillar of this group there are at the maximum five pairs of such rudimentary feet, viz. a pair on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, and on the last abdominal segment. The embryos of Hydrophilus ([fig. 187]), Mantis, etc. are also provided with additional appendages. In various Thysanura small prominences are present on more or fewer of the abdominal segments ([fig. 192]), which may probably be regarded as rudimentary feet.
Whether all or any of the appendages of various kinds connected with the hindermost segments belong to the same category as the legs is very doubtful. Their usual absence in the embryo or in any case their late appearance appears to me against so regarding them; but Bütschli is of opinion that in the Bee the parts of the sting are related genetically to the appendages of the penultimate and antepenultimate abdominal segments, and this view is to some extent supported by more recent observations (Kraepelin, etc.), and if it holds true for the Bee must be regarded as correct for other cases also.
As to the order of the appearance of the appendages observations are as yet too scanty to form any complete scheme. In many cases all the appendages appear approximately at the same moment, e.g. Hydrophilus, but whether this holds good for all Coleoptera is by no means certain. In Apis the appendages are stated by Bütschli to arise simultaneously, but according to Kowalevsky the two mouth appendages first appear, then the antennæ, and still later the thoracic appendages. In the Diptera the mouth appendages are first formed, and either simultaneously with these, or slightly later, the antennæ. In the Hemiptera and Libellulidæ the thoracic appendages are the first to be formed, and the second pair of maxillæ makes its appearance before the other cephalic appendages.
Fig. 188. Figures illustrating aquatic respiration in Insects. (After Gegenbaur.)
A. Hinder portion of the body of Ephemera vulgata. a. longitudinal tracheal trunks; b. alimentary canal; c. tracheal gills.
B. Larva of Æschna grandis. a. superior longitudinal tracheal trunks; b. their anterior end; c. portion branching on proctodæum; o. eyes.
C. Alimentary canal of the same larva from the side. a, b, and c. as in B; d. inferior tracheal trunk; e. transverse branches between upper and lower tracheal trunks.
The history of the changes in the embryonic appendages during the attainment of the adult condition is beyond the scope of this treatise, but it may be noted that the second pair of maxillæ are relatively very large in the embryo, and not infrequently (Libellula, etc.) have more resemblance to the ambulatory than to the masticatory appendages.
The exact nature of the wings and their relation to the other segments is still very obscure. They appear as dorsal leaf-like appendages on the 2nd and 3rd thoracic segments, and are in many respects similar to the tracheal gills of the larvæ of Ephemeridæ and Phryganidæ ([fig. 188] A), of which they are supposed by Gegenbaur and Lubbock to be modifications. The undoubtedly secondary character of the closed tracheal system of larvæ with tracheal gills tells against this view. Fritz Müller finds in the larvæ of Calotermes rugosus (one of the Termites) that peculiar and similar dorsal appendages are present on the two anterior of the thoracic segments. They are without tracheæ. The anterior atrophies, and the posterior acquires tracheæ and gives rise to the first pair of wings. The second pair of wings is formed from small processes on the third thoracic segment like those on the other two. Fritz Müller concludes from these facts that the wings of Insects are developed from dorsal processes of the body, not equivalent to the ventral appendages. What the primitive function of these appendages was is not clear. Fritz Müller suggests that they may have been employed as respiratory organs in the passage from an aqueous to a terrestrial existence, when the Termite ancestors lived in moist habitations—a function for which processes supplied with blood-channels would be well adapted. The undoubted affinity of Insects to Myriapods, coupled with the discovery by Moseley of a tracheal system in Peripatus, is however nearly fatal to the view that Insects can have sprung directly from aquatic ancestors not provided with tracheæ. But although this suggestion of Fritz Müller cannot be accepted, it is still possible that the processes discovered by him may have been the earliest rudiments of wings, which were employed first as organs of propulsion by a water-inhabiting Insect ancestor which had not yet acquired the power of flying.