INSECTS : THEIR MOUTHS. 143 



tension and contraction at the will of the animal ; being 

 sometimes pushed far out of the mouth, and at others 

 quite concealed within its sheath. " The manner," ob- 

 serves Mr. Newport, "in which the honey is obtained, 

 when the organ is plunged into it at the bottom of a 

 flower, is by lapping, or a constant succession of short 

 and quick extensions and contractions of the organ, 

 which occasion the fluid to accumulate upon it, and to 

 ascend along its upper surface, until it reaches the 

 orifice of the tube formed by the approximation of the 

 maxillce above, and of the labial palpi, and this part of 

 the ligula below." 



"Well might Swammerdam, when describing this ex- 

 quisite structure, humbly exclaim : — " I cannot refrain 

 from confessing, to the glory of the immense and incom- 

 prehensible Architect, that I have but imperfectly de- 

 scribed and represented this small organ ; for, to repre- 

 sent it to the life in its full perfection, as truly most 

 perfect it is, far exceeds the utmost efforts of human 

 knowledge." 



Here you may see the implement with which the Bug 

 performs its much-dreaded operation of blood-sucking ; 

 for though this is not the head of the Bed-bug, but of 

 one of the winged species that are found so abundantly 

 on plants, and which I have just obtained by beating 

 the hedge at the bottom of my garden, yet the structure 

 of the mouth is so exactly alike in all the members of 

 this immense family, that one example will serve for all 

 others. 



From the front of the head, which, owing to the manner 

 in which this part is carried, is the lower part, proceeds a 

 fine thread, about four times as long as the head itself, 

 passing along between the fore legs, ' close to the body 

 beneath the breast. It is, however, at the pleasure of 

 the animal, capable of being brought up so as to point 

 directly forward, and even projected in front of the head, 



