Crossword-Solution: APTEROUS 8 letters, 2 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 10

There is a very curious point in the astounding proportion of Coleoptera that are apterous; and I think I have guessed the reason, viz., that powers of flight would be injurious to insects inhabiting a confined locality, and expose them to be blown to the sea: to test this, I find that the insects inhabiting the Dezerte Grande, a quite small islet, would be still more exposed to this danger, and here the proportion of apterous insects is even considerably greater than on Madeira Proper.

Hooker collected the Kerguelen moth, for I remember he told me of the case when I suggested in the "Origin," the explanation of the coleoptera of Madeira being apterous; but he did not know what had become of the specimens.

Apterous, oval; thorax in front semicircular, shrouding the head; posterior angle sharp, rounded behind, the frontal edge bent slightly back, and yellowish; the upper surface brown, rather obscure, the surface irregularly raised, below deep shining pitchy brown.

But why these apterous insects should that day take such a wonderful aerial excursion, and why their webs should at once become so gross and material as to be considerably more weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, is a matter beyond my skill.

Collembola: an ordinal term applied to species which are apterous; have no metamorphoses; have variably developed abdominal saltatorial appendages and a peculiar ventral tube at base: the spring-tails.