All species of spinosaurus are similar in body shape, but vary greatly in size. The body color of the silk ant is brown or black, and some species are pink or reddish. The body of the silk ant is long and cylindrical, and the adult body length varies from 15 to 20 mm, depending on the species. They often dwell in silk pipes, silk chambers or silk galleries woven by themselves. Female adults of all species of the order are wingless , like nymphs. And the male silk ant adults? Some species have wings, and some species are wingless. The head of the silk ant has a pair of chewing mouthparts protruding forward, a pair of kidney-shaped compound eyes, and a pair of long, multi-segmented filamentous antennae. Silk ants of the spun foot order do not have one eye.
In the 3 thoracic segments of the silk ant, the forethia is narrow and small, while the middle and posterior thoraxes are relatively wide. In particular, winged male silk ants may have a thicker middle and posterior chest due to their internal flying muscles. For winged male silk ants, the two pairs of wings on the back of their middle and posterior thorax are similar in shape and size, with a narrow, membranous, multi-covered fine hair, and a very simple order of veins on the wings. Before flying, hemolymphs are pumped into the wing veins, and the 2 pairs of wings become very hard. When stopped, the hemolymphs in the wing veins are emptied, the wings become soft, and then folded on the back of the body. This flexibility of the male silk ant wings allows them to move freely in narrow silk chambers or corridors without damage.
Winged adults of the Isotail Silk Ant family Of the Mulberry silk ant family
The feet of both male and female silk ants are short but robust. The tarsal segments of the first pair of feet are expanded, and they grow into silk-secreting glands (i.e., silk glands). The abdomen of the silk ant has a total of 10 abdominal segments, and at the end of the last abdominal segment there is a pair of tail whiskers, and the tail whiskers have a very sensitive touch. Because the external morphology of the spindle-foot silk ant is very small, the identification and identification of its species is very difficult. In the past, entomologists often had to take a closer look at the structure of their male maters in the identification of the species of silk ants. This method is still practical today, although some entomologists and taxonomists believe that the taxonomic basis obtained by the method is not sufficient. Male silk ants do not feed at all during the adult stage, but they still have a pair of mouthparts similar to those of female adults. The reason why their mouthparts do not degenerate may be that they also have the effect of grasping females during mating activities.
Some of the relevant terms in this article are compared in Chinese and English:
【Spinning foot order】 Embioptera
Webspinner
Silk tunnels
Silk chamber
Silk gallery
Oligotoma saundersii
Oligotomidae
Tarsomere
【丝腺】silk-producing gland