Petiole (insect anatomy) on:
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In entomology
Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s, bees, and wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...
s in the suborder Apocrita.
The petiole can consist of either one or two segments, a characteristic that separates major subfamilies of ants.
Structure
The term 'petiole' is most commonly used to refer to the constricted first (and sometimes second) metasomal (posterior) segment of members of thehymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic.
Females typi ...
n suborder Apocrita (ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s, bees, and wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...
s). It is sometimes also used to refer to other insects with similar body shapes, where the metasomal base is constricted. The petiole is occasionally called a pedicel, but in entomology, that term is more correctly reserved for the second segment of the antenna; while in arachnology
Arachnology is the science, scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, Pseudoscorpionida, pseudoscorpions, Opiliones, harvestmen, Tick, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other a ...
, ' pedicel' is the accepted term to define the constriction between the cephalothorax and abdomen of spiders.
The plump portion of the abdomen posterior to the petiole (and postpetiole in the Myrmicinae
Myrmicinae is a subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily ...
) is called the gaster.
The structure of the petiole is an easy way to visually classify ants, because the major subfamilies of Formicidae have structural differences: some ants have two-segmented petioles, while others have a single-segmented petiole.
Certain wasps also possess a two-segmented petiole, notably extant wasps of the family Mymarommatidae. The fossil taxon '' Rasnitsevania'' ( Praeaulacidae) has a two-segmented petiole.
Other uses
Petiole may also be used in the context of wing veins, where a wing cell that is ordinarily four-sided is reduced to a triangle with a stalk (the cell thus being 'petiolate'). Wings themselves may originate on structures termed petioles, here referring to a basal portion of the wing that forms a narrow stalk, seen in certain crane flies and damsel flies. The stalk at the base of paper wasp nests is sometimes also called a petiole, or pedicel.See also
* PropodeumReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petiole (Insect) Insect anatomy