Document Type

Research

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present detailed drawings of the external form of the mouth parts of the adult firebrat, as a representative lepismatid. That the Lepismatidae, or silverfish insects, are of great significance in insect morphology, is well known to students of the subject. In certain respects they are the principle morphological link between the Apterygota and the Pterygota. While any of the widely distributed, domestic species of Lepisma or Ctenolepisma might well be used for morphological study, the firebrat, Thermobia domestica, is the species which seems to us the most likely to be practical for use in experimental biology, largely because it is thermophilic and can be reared comparatively quickly at high constant temperatures (Adams, HJ33, 1936; Sweetman, 1938). This insect has been used successfully in a series of toxicological studies carried on at Iowa State College: one of the more recent of these is an investigation of the toxicity of barium compounds (Richardson and Seiferle, 1941). The morphology of this insect, including the structure of its mouth parts, is likely to be of interest to a considerable variety of workers.

Publication Date

1942

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

Issue

First Page

507

Last Page

516

Copyright

Language

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

O'Harra, Roberta and Adams, J. Alfred (1942) "The Mouth Parts of the Firebrat Thermobia domestica (Packard), (Thysanura)," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 49(1), 507-516.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol49/iss1/98

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The Mouth Parts of the Firebrat Thermobia domestica (Packard), (Thysanura)

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