132 ANATOMY. 



the most simple stomachs ; in these also it is a long, tolerably broad, 

 smooth tube, which rarely (for ex., in Chrysomela,} is beset with short 

 flocks. These flocks are portions of the internal mucous membrane 

 which pass through the muscular membrane, but are not covered by it. 

 In some genera (for ex., Lema, Callichroma moschatum,} portions of 

 this tubular stomach are broader, others again narrower, but in the 

 majority it gradually decreases in size. . 



The structure is more anomalous in other families, which, although 

 chiefly feeding upon vegetable matter, consume it in a more crude and 

 unprepared state, viz , as fresh leaves or harder fruits. The majority 

 of these have also a long, cylindrical stomach, but the oesophagus is 

 divided from it by a distinct muscular ring, and it is more tense, and 

 occasionally, as in the Hymenoplera, transversely ringed. Among 

 these are the Rhynchophora, many of which even possess the proven- 

 triculus and the before-mentioned flocks, (for ex., Cryptorhynchus La- 

 pathi}, the Vesicifica (as Lytta, Mylabris, Mcloe), the tortoise-beetles 

 (Cassidaria), &c. 



But the Buprestidea, of all the vegetable feeders, exhibit the most 

 remarkable structure of the stomach : in these, at its very commence- 

 ment, it distends on each side into a long blind appendage, equal 

 indeed in length to the stomach itself; and this appendage, as well as 

 the commencement of the stomach, is furnished throughout three parts 

 of its extent with short, blind processes, like that of the flesh feeders. 

 The remainder of the cylindrical stomach is smooth *. The Elaterodea 

 form a transition to this remarkable arrangement, for in them the com- 

 mencement of the stomach has on the two opposite sides a short folded 

 pocket, it then continues, as a narrow, cylindrical, transversely folded 

 tube, and distends widely at its termination t. 



The Carnivora display the most complex structure of this organ 

 among the Coleoptera (PI. XIX. f. 4. n, D). Here the before-described 

 proventriculus lies in front of the stomach, from which it is separated 

 by a distinct constriction ; the stomach itself is not very long, at least 

 considerably shorter than in the vegetable feeders, and it is covered 

 upon the whole or major part of the upper surface with long, thin, 

 and blind flocks. These flocks originate, as was already observed in 

 Chrysomela, from the inner mucous membrane of the stomach, and 



* Compare H. M. Gade, in the Nova Acta Phys. Med., vol. xi. part ii. p. 329. ; and 

 J. F. MeckeFs Beitriige zur Vergl. Anat., vol. i. pa-t ii. p. 129. 

 t Ramdohr. PI. XI. f. 1. 



