The respiratory apparatus is essentially composed of membranous ducts of great tenuity, their ramifications spread everywhere in incalculable numbers, and bury themselves in the different organs, much in the same way as the fibrous roots of plants bury themselves in the soil. These vessels are called tracheæ. Their communications with the air are established externally in different ways, according to the character of the medium in which the insect lives.
It is well known that a vast number of insects live in the air. The air penetrates into the tracheæ by a number of orifices placed at the sides of the body, which are termed spiracles. On close examination these may be seen in the shape of button-holes in a number of different species. Let us dwell for a moment on the breathing apparatus of the insect, that is to say, on the tracheæ.
This apparatus is sometimes composed of elastic tubes only, sometimes of a collection of tubes and membranous pouches. We will first treat of the former.
The coats of these breathing tubes are very elastic, and always preserve a cylindrical form, even when not distended. This state of things is maintained by the existence, throughout the whole length of the tracheæ, of a thread of half horny consistency, rolled up in a spiral, and covered externally by a very delicate membranous sheath. The external membrane is thin, smooth, and generally colourless, or of a pearly white. The cartilaginous spiral is sometimes cylindrical and sometimes flat. It only adheres slightly to the external membrane, but is, on the other hand, closely united to the internal one. This spiral thread is only continuous in the same trunk; it breaks off when it branches, and each branch then possesses its own thread, in such a way that it is not joined to the thread of the trunk from which it issued, except by continuity, just as the branch of a tree is attached to the stem which supports it. This thread is prolonged, without interruption, to the extreme points of the finest ramifications.
The number of tracheæ in the body of an insect is very great. That patient anatomist, Lyonet, has proved this in his great work on the Goat-moth Caterpillar, Cossus ligniperda. Lyonet, who congratulated himself with having finished his long labours without having had to destroy more than eight or nine of the species he wished to describe, had the patience to count the different air-tubes in that caterpillar. He found that there were 256 longitudinal and 1,336 transverse branches; in short, that the body of this creature is traversed in all directions by 1,572 aeriferous tubes which are visible to the eye by the aid of a magnifying glass, without taking into account those which may be imperceptible.
The complicated system of the breathing apparatus which we are describing is sometimes composed of an assemblage of tubes and membranous pouches, besides the elastic tubes which we have already mentioned. These pouches vary in size, and are very elastic, expanding when the air enters, and contracting when it leaves them, as they are altogether without the species of framework formed by the spiral thread of the tubular tracheæ, of which they are only enlargements.
[Fig. 13] is explanatory of these organs of respiration.
The respiratory mechanism of an insect is easily understood. "The abdominal cavity," says M. Milne-Edwards, "in which is placed the greater part of the respiratory apparatus, is susceptible of being contracted and dilated alternately by the play of the different segments of which the skeleton is composed, and which are placed in such a manner that they can be drawn into each other to a greater or less extent. When the insect contracts its body, the tracheæ are compressed and the air driven out. But when, on the other hand, the visceral cavity assumes its normal size, or dilates, these channels become larger, and the air with which they are filled being rarefied by this expansion, is no longer in equilibrium with the outer air with which it is in communication through the medium of the spiracles. The exterior air is then impelled into the interior of the respiratory tubes, and the inspiration is effected."
The respiratory movements can be accelerated or diminished, according to the wants of the animal; in general, there are from thirty to fifty to the minute. In a state of repose the spiracles are open, and all the tracheæ are free to receive air whenever the visceral cavity is dilated, but those orifices may be closed, and the insect thus possesses the faculty of stopping all communication between the respiratory apparatus and the surrounding atmosphere.