"Neuropterous insect" Quotes from Famous Books
... different organs are worked in by nature for the seemingly insignificant object of enabling the male to grasp the female firmly." The mandibles or jaws are sometimes used for this purpose; thus the male Corydalis cornutus (a neuropterous insect in some degree allied to the Dragon flies, etc.) has immense curved jaws, many times longer than those of the female; and they are smooth instead of being toothed, so that he is thus enabled to seize her without injury. (4. Mr. Walsh, ibid. p. 107.) One of the stag-beetles of North America (Lucanus ... — The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin |