Our Common Insects A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and Houses

by Alpheus Spring Packard

.....The most complicated genus, and the one which stands at the head of the family, is Machilis, one species of which lives in the Northern and Middle States, and another in Oregon. They affect damp places, living under leaves and stones. They all have rounded, highly arched bodies, and large compound eyes, the two being united together. The maxillary palpi are greatly developed, but the chief characteristics are the two-jointed stylets arranged in nine pairs along each side of the abdomen, reminding us of the abdominal legs of Myriopods. The body ends in three long bristles, as in Lepisma. The Lepisma saccharina of Linnæus, if, as is probable, that is the name of our common species, is not uncommon in old damp houses, where it has the habits of the cockroach, eating cloths, tapestry, silken trimmings of furniture, and doing occasional damage to libraries by devouring the paste, and eating holes in the leaves and covers of books........

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 20, 2005

About the author

Alpheus Spring Packard Jr., LL.D. (February 19, 1839 – February 14, 1905) was an American entomologist and palaeontologist. He was the son of Alpheus Spring Packard, Sr. (1798–1884) and the brother of William Alfred Packard. He was born in Brunswick, Maine and was Professor of Zoology and Geology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island from 1878 until his death. He was a vocal proponent of the Neo-Lamarckian theory of evolution.

His chief work was the classification and anatomy of arthropods, and contributions to economic entomology, zoogeography, and the phylogeny and metamorphoses of insects. Packard was appointed to the United States Entomological Commission in 1877 where he served with Charles Valentine Riley and Cyrus Thomas. He wrote school textbooks, such as Zoölogy for High Schools and Colleges (eleventh edition, 1904). His Monograph of the Bombycine Moths of North America was published in three parts (1895, 1905, 1915, edited by T. D. A. Cockerell).

Reviews

[Wendy Crittenden · Rating 3 out of 5]

so i bought this for drawing reference too, not as great as i wanted it to be. looking for a specific insect that didn't have any decent illustrations of. it will probably come in handy in the future, when i get drawing fever again.