Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection

GLOSSARY 1. GLOSSARY OF THE PRINCIPAL SCIENTIFIC TERMS USED IN THE PRESENT VOLUME. (continued)

INSECTIVOROUS.--Feeding on insects.

INVERTEBRATA, or INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS.--Those animals which do not possess a backbone or spinal column.

LACUNAE.--Spaces left among the tissues in some of the lower animals and serving in place of vessels for the circulation of the fluids of the body.

LAMELLATED.--Furnished with lamellae or little plates.

LARVA (pl. LARVAE).--The first condition of an insect at its issuing from the egg, when it is usually in the form of a grub, caterpillar, or maggot.

LARYNX.--The upper part of the windpipe opening into the gullet.

LAURENTIAN.--A group of greatly altered and very ancient rocks, which is greatly developed along the course of the St. Laurence, whence the name. It is in these that the earliest known traces of organic bodies have been found.

LEGUMINOSAE.--An order of plants represented by the common peas and beans, having an irregular flower in which one petal stands up like a wing, and the stamens and pistil are enclosed in a sheath formed by two other petals. The fruit is a pod (or legume).

LEMURIDAE.--A group of four-handed animals, distinct from the monkeys and approaching the insectivorous quadrupeds in some of their characters and habits. Its members have the nostrils curved or twisted, and a claw instead of a nail upon the first finger of the hind hands.

LEPIDOPTERA.--An order of insects, characterised by the possession of a spiral proboscis, and of four large more or less scaly wings. It includes the well-known butterflies and moths.

LITTORAL.--Inhabiting the seashore.

LOESS.--A marly deposit of recent (Post-Tertiary) date, which occupies a great part of the valley of the Rhine.

MALACOSTRACA.--The higher division of the Crustacea, including the ordinary crabs, lobsters, shrimps, etc., together with the woodlice and sand-hoppers.