Faculty of Flight.
Nature Notes
By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. N° INSECT starts life with wings. In no insects are they fully developed until late jn life. Some insects, greatly to be pitied, never fly. Like our flightless kiwis and wekas, they are, all through life, of the earth earthy. In some species of insects males only have the glorious faculty of flight. Females of these species, in sad deficiency, never flit from flower to flower, but crawl upon their bellies all their days. An example of this is the basket-making moths which hang their leathery tubular homes on many a branch and twig in many a New Zealand garden. The perfect male is drab in its blackishbrown coat, and is inconspicuous, but it flies swiftly. The perfect female is wingless and helpless, and looks like a maggot. An earwig is a lowly creature, and is not pretty, but in possession of beautiful wings, even if k; does not use them, it has an advantage over some higher insects. In West Africa it has a close connection, Hemimerus, not present in New Zealand, that is not only wingless, but also blind, a plight that no other species of insect envies.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19320627.2.70
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 490, 27 June 1932, Page 6
Word Count
200Faculty of Flight. Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 490, 27 June 1932, Page 6
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