ORGAN OF TASTE IN INSECTS 209 



insects, such as Mites, &c., are said sometimes to make prey, 

 indifferently, of Beetles, Butterflies, Ants, and Field- crickets ; 

 but this love of variety no more proves their want of taste or 

 power of discrimination, than the gourmand's liking for, and 

 nice appreciation of, the varied viands of his table. 



With regard to the particular organ whereby the taste of 

 Insects is chiefly exercised, both analogy and observation point 

 to the mouth and tongue. In Dragon-flies, Grasshoppers, 

 and Crickets, this little member is rounded, and somewhat 

 resembling that of quadrupeds ; in others, its shape is curiously 

 varied ; in the Wasp, forked like a serpent's ; in Saw-flies, 

 triply divided ; in Bees, long and tubular ; in Bugs, awl-shaped 

 and sharp ; but in all, as has been proved by recent discovery, 

 the organs of taste and digestion are moistened and kept in 

 order by a due supply of saliva from pipes opening sometimes 

 into the mouth, sometimes into the gullet, and sometimes into 

 the stomach, as may be most suitable for the purposes of 

 digestion, and according to the greater or less solidity of food. 

 Of the existence, and one of the uses of this salivary supply, 

 we are furnished with a common example in the proceedings of 

 a Ely, in discussion (in solution rather) of a lump of sugar, 

 by help of a solvent let down through the sucker, which serves 

 afterwards to draw up the syrup. We have seen the same 

 operation performed by the Gamma (y) and other Moths. 



We must here have done for the present with Insect senses. 

 Our brief description of them has been to the eye, but a sketch 



