Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology - Part 90
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Part 90

Vermian: worm-like.

Vermicular: worm-like, tortuous: resembling the tracks of a worm.

Vermiculate: worm-like in form: a marking with wormlike tracings.

Vermiform: worm-shaped.

Vernal: appearing in spring.

Vernantia: the molting or shedding of the skin.

Verriculate: with thick-set tufts of parallel hairs.

Verricule: a dense tuft of upright hairs.

Verrucose: having little hard lumps or wart-like elevations.

Versatile: moving freely in every direction.

Versicolored: with several colors, indeterminately restricted.

Vertex: the top of the head between the eyes, front and occiput: in bees, that part of the head adjacent to and occupied by the ocelli: in Notonectids, "the imaginary anterior margin of the notocephalon."

Vertexal: occurring on or near the vertex, or directed toward it.

Vertical cephalic bristles: in Diptera, are two pairs, inner and outer, inserted more or less behind the upper and inner corner of the eye; erect, or the inner pair convergent, the outer pair divergent.

Vertical margin: in Diptera, the limit between front and occiput.

Vertical triangle: in male Diptera, the small triangle upon which the ocelli are situated; limited behind by vertex, in front by eyes.

Verticil: one of the whorls of long fine sensitive hair arranged symmetrically on the joints of the antennae in certain Diptera.

Verticillate: placed in whorls: antennae in which the joints have a circle of long, fine hair as in Cecidomyiids.

Vesicant: blistering: able to produce a blister.

Vesicle of p.e.n.i.s: in Odonata, a sac with chitinous walls, attached to the sternum behind the p.e.n.i.s.

Vesicles: little sacs, bladders or cysts: applied to extensible organs producing odors or secretions, as in some beetles and caterpillars.

Vesicular: bladder-like; beset with spherical prominences.

Vesicula seminalis: see seminal vesicles.

Vestibule: the s.p.a.ce around the ovipositor formed by the projecting margins of the surrounding segments: the s.p.a.ce between the occluding structure of the spiracle and the valve opening into the trachea itself.

Vestigial: small or degenerate: only a trace or remnant of a previously functional organ.

Vest.i.ture: the surface clothing, whether of a hairy or scaly character.

Vexhillum: in Hymenoptera, an expansion on the tip of tarsi of certain fossorial groups.

Vibrant: having a rapid motion to and fro.

Vibratile: formed for vibratory motion: used to express the almost continual movement of the antennae of some Hymenoptera, and the wings of some Diptera.

Vibrissae: curved bristles or hairs in some Diptera, situated between the mystax and the antenna: whiskers.

Villi: soft hairs or papillate processes: plural of villus, q.v.

Villose -ous: soft-haired or clothed with soft, short hair.

Villus: a short, hair-like or papillate process on the surface of certain absorbent and sensory organs.

Vinous: wine-color: a deep, transparent red-brown, like claret [purple madder].

Violaceous: violet colored: a mixture of blue and red [violet carmine].

Virescent or Viridescent: greenish or becoming green.

Viridis: green, like verdigris [French blue + chrome yellow + white].

Viscera: the internal organs of the body.

Visceral: relating or attached to the viscera.

Viscid: sticky: covered with a shiny, resinous or greasy matter.

Viscous: thick, sticky or semi-fluid.

Vis formatrix: the creative or formative force.

Vitelligenous: producing the vitellus or yolk: said of certain cells in the ovaries, believed to have that function.

Vitelline -us: yellow, with a slight tinge of red, like yolk of an egg.

Vitelline membrane: the delicate tissue surrounding the yolk of an egg.

Vitreous: gla.s.sy; transparent.

Vitta: a longitudinal, colored line.

Vitta frontalis: = frontal stripe: q.v.

Vittate: striped.

Viviparous: applied to insects which bear living young.