The Beetle in Motion

Abstract

IF it can interest Prof. Lloyd Morgan I am in a position to communicate that I have many times observed the progressive movements of insects, spiders, and myriapods. I have not noticed the retardation of hind-legs; it seems to me that this occurs only in the case of bulky and slow-moving beetles, like the larger Melasomata. In general, I find that the mode of progression in articulates does not differ essentially from what we see in vertebrates; the process is only, at first sight, a little obscured by the plurality of the legs. If we consider only the prothoracic ring of a beetle, we find that it walks like all bipeds, alternating one leg with another. Two segments walk in the manner of quadrupeds, which are not amblers. Now the legs of the third segment must necessarily repeat the movements of the legs of the first segment, for the sake of equilibrium. The fourth ring would repeat the movements of the second, and so on.