378 PHYSIOLOGY. 



function likewise to the great gut,, and, as the clavate gut is the same 

 organ, it would necessarily also be attributable to this. Thus much is 

 certain, that the chyme is further elaborated and extracted in the great 

 gut of such larvae before it is rejected from the body by the colon. 



A function limited to the conveyance of the chyme cannot be 

 attributed to the very long ilium of the carnivorous insects, namely, 

 the Dytici and Peltodea, particularly as it is not only longer here than 

 the duodenum, but even several times its length, for example in Necro- 

 phorus. In these, evidently, as in the higher animals, the ilium 

 must throughout its whole course separate chyle ; at least, a thin 

 finely divided chyme is found throughout it. I am of the same 

 opinion of the likewise very long ilium of the Lepidoptera, for the 

 small egg-shaped stomach is too insignificant to separate all the chyle 

 requisite for their support, although, as experience teaches us, the 

 Lepidoptera are very temperate in the taking of food, and exhibit no 

 trace of their previously voracious appetite as larvae. All these insects 

 with a long ilium have no distinct thick intestine, whereas in those with 

 a short ilium, for example, the Capricorns and Lamellicornia, we find 

 it described by Ramdohr as the clavate intestine. In the cockchafer 

 and the other Lamellicornia., in their perfect state, instead of the broad 

 sack-shaped thick intestine, we find an oval longitudinal thick gut, 

 which is internally furnished with projecting longitudinal folds, which, 

 as well as in the larvee, subjects the chyme to a second elaboration, and 

 also extracts it, for which purpose it appears to require the longitudinal 

 folds. This second extraction can also, if it, which we may not doubt, 

 likewise takes place in those insects which have a long ilium, occur only 

 in the ilium. Indeed, such insects, namely, the Dytici, Peltodea, and 

 Lepidoptera, have a longer or shorter caecum, which, in Dyticus, is 

 nearly half the length of the intestinal canal, and wherein the chyme 

 may possibly be subjected to a second digestion. In favour of this opinion 

 the multitude of glands upon its inner surface speak, as well as the 

 viscous nature of all the nutriment contained within it. But we do not 

 always find it filled with chyme, occasionally only in Dyticus ; it some- 

 times only contains air, whence is explained Leon Dufour's opinion of its 

 supplying the place of a swimming bladder. In the Lepidoptera, the 

 brownish red fluid accumulates in it during the pupa state, which 

 is rejected upon the exclusion of the perfect insect, and which, 

 according to chemical analysis, consists chiefly of uric acid, and very 

 much corresponds with the excretion of the biliary vessels. Treviranus, 



