DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68888#0261
174
Microgram pi a.
a quilly or finny substance,consisting of several long,{lender and varioussy
bended quills or wires, something resembling the veins of leaves 5 thefe
are, as ’twere,the Anns or quills which sriffen the whole Area} and keep
the other part distended, which is a very thin transparent ikin or mem-
brane variously folded, and platted, but not very regularly, and is be-
sides exceeding thickly bestuck with innumerable {mail brides, which
are onely perceptible by the bigger magnifying Microfccpe, and not
with that neither, but with a very convenient augmentation of day-
light projected on the Object with a burning Glass, as I have elsewhere
fliew'd, or by looking through it against the light.
In steed of these small hairs, in several other Flies, there are infinite of
small Feathers, which cover both the under and upper sides of this thin
film as in almost all the sorts of Butterssies and Moths: and thofe sinall parts
are not onely stiap’d very much like the feathers of Birds, but like thofe
variegated with all the variety of curious bright and vivid colours ima-
ginable j and those feathers are likewise so admirably and delicately
rang’d,as to compose very fine ssourishings and ornamental paintings,like
Turkic and Perfan Carpets, but of far more surpassing beauty, as is evident
enough to the naked eye, in the painted wings of Butterflies, but much
more through an ordinary Microscope.
Intermingled likewife with thefe hairs, may be perceived multitudes
of little pits, or black spots,in the exended membrane, which seemto be
the root of the hairs that grow on the other side 5 these two bodies feem
dispers’d over the whole siirface of the wing.
The hairs are best perceiv’d, by looking through it against the light,
or, by laying the wing upon a very white piece of Paper, in a conve-
nient light, for thereby every little hair most manifestly appears, a
Specimen ( of which you may obferve drawn in the fourth Figure of
the 23. Scheme, AB, CD, EF whereof reprefent feme parts of the
bones or quills of the wing, each of which you may perceive to be
cover’d] over with a multitude of fcales, or brides, the former A B,
is the biggest stem of all the wing, and may be properly enough call’d
the cut-air, it being that which terminates and stiffens the formost edge
of the wing 5 the fore-edge of this is arm’d with a multitude of little
brides, or Tenter-hooks, in feme standing regular and in order, in
others not 5 all the points of which are dire&cd from the body to-
wards the tip of the wing’, nor is this edge onely thus fring’d, but
even all the whole edge of the wing is cover’d with a sinall fringe,
confisting of short and more dender brides.
This Subject, had I time, would afford excellent matter for the con-
templation of the nature of wings and of ssying 5 but, because I may,
perhaps, get a more convenient time to prosecute that {peculation, and
recoiled: feveral Obfervations that I have made of that particular. I (ball
at prefent proceed to
Observ.
Microgram pi a.
a quilly or finny substance,consisting of several long,{lender and varioussy
bended quills or wires, something resembling the veins of leaves 5 thefe
are, as ’twere,the Anns or quills which sriffen the whole Area} and keep
the other part distended, which is a very thin transparent ikin or mem-
brane variously folded, and platted, but not very regularly, and is be-
sides exceeding thickly bestuck with innumerable {mail brides, which
are onely perceptible by the bigger magnifying Microfccpe, and not
with that neither, but with a very convenient augmentation of day-
light projected on the Object with a burning Glass, as I have elsewhere
fliew'd, or by looking through it against the light.
In steed of these small hairs, in several other Flies, there are infinite of
small Feathers, which cover both the under and upper sides of this thin
film as in almost all the sorts of Butterssies and Moths: and thofe sinall parts
are not onely stiap’d very much like the feathers of Birds, but like thofe
variegated with all the variety of curious bright and vivid colours ima-
ginable j and those feathers are likewise so admirably and delicately
rang’d,as to compose very fine ssourishings and ornamental paintings,like
Turkic and Perfan Carpets, but of far more surpassing beauty, as is evident
enough to the naked eye, in the painted wings of Butterflies, but much
more through an ordinary Microscope.
Intermingled likewife with thefe hairs, may be perceived multitudes
of little pits, or black spots,in the exended membrane, which seemto be
the root of the hairs that grow on the other side 5 these two bodies feem
dispers’d over the whole siirface of the wing.
The hairs are best perceiv’d, by looking through it against the light,
or, by laying the wing upon a very white piece of Paper, in a conve-
nient light, for thereby every little hair most manifestly appears, a
Specimen ( of which you may obferve drawn in the fourth Figure of
the 23. Scheme, AB, CD, EF whereof reprefent feme parts of the
bones or quills of the wing, each of which you may perceive to be
cover’d] over with a multitude of fcales, or brides, the former A B,
is the biggest stem of all the wing, and may be properly enough call’d
the cut-air, it being that which terminates and stiffens the formost edge
of the wing 5 the fore-edge of this is arm’d with a multitude of little
brides, or Tenter-hooks, in feme standing regular and in order, in
others not 5 all the points of which are dire&cd from the body to-
wards the tip of the wing’, nor is this edge onely thus fring’d, but
even all the whole edge of the wing is cover’d with a sinall fringe,
confisting of short and more dender brides.
This Subject, had I time, would afford excellent matter for the con-
templation of the nature of wings and of ssying 5 but, because I may,
perhaps, get a more convenient time to prosecute that {peculation, and
recoiled: feveral Obfervations that I have made of that particular. I (ball
at prefent proceed to
Observ.