It is assumed that the majority of users of this publication will be botanists, forestry officers or extension workers. To the majority, the various parts of an insect and entomological terminology will be familiar. For others the specialised terms used are explained briefly below.
| ANTENNAE | A pair of segmented appendages arising from the front of the head, furnished with structures for tactile and chemosensory functions. |
ELYTRON (Pl.ELYTRA) | The modified forewings of Coleoptera composed of rigid cuticle. |
| EXPLANATE | A term used for a flanged edge in adult insects along the sides of the thorax of some species of beetles, or the edge formed from the secretion deposited by some bruchid beetles over the eggs adhering them firmly to the substrata. |
FEMUR (Pl.FEMORA) | The middle section of the insect leg. |
| PARASITOID | An animal which completes its development at the expense of another by feeding internally on its organs or tissue eventually killing the host. |
| PARASITE | An animal which completes its development at the expense of another by feeding internally on its organs or tissue by without killing the host. |
| PREDATOR | A carnivorous animal which devours its prey. |
| PYGIDIUM | The last abdominal segment of a bruchid beetle. |
| PUBESCENCE | In entomological terms, any form of hair or setal covering, ranging from very thin upstanding to flat scale-like hairs adpressed to the surface of the cuticle. |
| ROSTRUM | Modified mouthparts - particularly those of plant sucking insects. |
| SUTURE | The dividing line between the two elytra on the dorsal surface of a beetle. |
| SCLERITE | A hardened plate of cuticle. |
TARSUS (Pl. TARSI) | The apical section of an insect leg (usually ending in two claws). |
| TRANSVERSE | On a line or plane at right-angles to the longitudinal axis. |
