Dermatoptera: skin-winged: an ordinal term applied to insects with elytriform, abbreviated primaries beneath which the secondaries are folded transversely and fan-like: mouth mandibulate, prothorax free; abdomen forcipate; metamorphosis incomplete: the Forficulidae or earwigs.

Desectus: = truncatus.

Desideratum -ata: some thing or things needed or desired.

Destitutus: wanting; being without.

Determinate: with well-defined outlines or distinct limits: fixed: marked out.

Detonans: exploding: a sudden noise or a puff like an explosion.

Detritus: rubbed off; a surface partly denuded.

Deuterotoky: parthenogenetic reproduction when the progeny are male and female: see arrhenotoky and thelyotoky.

Deutocerebral segment: =antennal segment; q.v.

Deutocerebrum: the middle portion of the brain, formed by the ganglion of the 2d primary segment; also termed antennal or olfactory lobes from the parts it innervates.