I agree, those look like empty pits. This is very interesting! The shape of the head and layout of the pits are consistent with my BMSB. I wonder why some bugs have them and some don't?Adalbert wrote:I have just checked the next two pictures but haven't found any balloons
https://live.staticflickr.com/4230/3541 ... aacd_o.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/4254/3541 ... af21_o.jpg
but sometimes small, white points in the pits.
Maybe. For that picture the textual description of "Scabriculous to Areolate" takes me to page 19 of the PDF (page 17 of the original paper), where it saysmaybe at the top of the picture 19?Unfortunately I do not see anything in the 44 SEM pictures of that publication that matches well with the sculptured cuticle that I have photographed here.
The problem I have is that in picture 19 (and in all the others) I do not see any of the "overhanging edges" structure that shows clearly in mine and I think is visible in Eisner's Chelinidia. Likewise, I don't see anything in the words that suggests overhanging lips or edges.scabriculous, (figs. 13,19), finely scabrous; with fine and regular short, sharp, wrinkles and/or projections (M)(T-B). cf., muriculate, shagreened.
scabrous, (fig 14), rough; irregularly and roughly rugose; possessing short, sharp projections or wrinkles (B)(T-B). dim. scabriculous. cf., rugose, salebrose, squarrose.
...then...
* shagreened, covered with a closely set roughness, like the rough-surfaced horse leather termed shagreened; like shark leather (T-B). cf., scabriculous
...and on the previous page...
muriculate, with a covering of fine, short, sharp, thick excrescences; irregularly scabriculous (M).
It would be interesting to know what terminology is used by experts in this area. But I have not found technical papers other than Eisner's. Eisner's phrasing of "minutely sculpted so as to serve as a physical sponge" in "For Love of Insects" seems very descriptive but written for a general audience. On the other hand, he also uses the term "physical sponge" in a related paper titled "Chemical attraction of kleptoparasitic flies to heteropteran insects caught by orb-weaving spiders"" (currently available at https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/88/18/8194.full.pdf). But Google search on "physical sponge" "stink bug" finds little more than Eisner's writings, my threads here at PMN quoting him, and a bunch of hits containing perhaps the most random phrases I have ever seen. So for me the terminology remains a continuing mystery (among many others).
--Rik