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A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; plural ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'margin'. A given tergum may be divided into hardened plates or sclerites commonly referred to as tergites.
In a thoracic segment, for example, the tergum may be divided into an anterior notum and a posterior scutellum. Lateral extensions of a tergite are known as paranota (Greek for "alongside the back") or ''carinae'' (Latin for "keel"), exemplified by the flat-backed millipedes of the order Polydesmida.
Kinorhynchs have tergal and sternal plates too, though seemingly not homologous with those of arthropods.
Tergo-tergal is a
File:Andrena spiraeana abdomen.jpg , Abdominal tergum (divided into several tergites) of a
A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; plural ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'margin'. A given tergum may be divided into hardened plates or sclerites commonly referred to as tergites.
In a thoracic segment, for example, the tergum may be divided into an anterior notum and a posterior scutellum. Lateral extensions of a tergite are known as paranota (Greek for "alongside the back") or ''carinae'' (Latin for "keel"), exemplified by the flat-backed millipedes of the order Polydesmida.
Kinorhynchs have tergal and sternal plates too, though seemingly not homologous with those of arthropods.
Tergo-tergal is a stridulatory
Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mech ...
mechanism in which fine spines of the abdominal tergites are rubbed together to produce sound. This process is known as abdominal telescoping.
Examples
bee
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfami ...
.
File:Pregnant scorpion.jpg , Seven sclerites distinctly visible on the back of a pregnant scorpion.
File:Wasp morphology Generic Text.svg , A tergite of this wasp is labeled 19.
File:Ttrilobites thorax-segments (tergites).png , Thoracic tergites of various trilobites.
References
Further reading
* {{cite journal , journal=Systematic Zoology , volume=7 , issue=3 , pages=131–133 , title=The terms tergum and sternum, tergite and sternite , year = 1958 , last1=Hood , first=J. Douglas , doi=10.2307/2411977 , jstor=2411977 Arthropod anatomy