SECTION II. 



FOOD OF INSECTS. 



It appears to have been first observed by Aristotle, 

 that insects may be divided into such as are furnished 

 with jaws for eating, and such as are provided with a 

 tongue for lapping or sucking,* — a division which in 

 modern times was placed in a more prominent light by 

 Clairville,! and has been adopted by StephensJ and 

 other eminent living naturalists. In one point of view^ 

 these two divisions are of considerable value, as they 

 afford an obvious and broad basis upon which to build 

 the minor divisions of a system ; but like many other 

 distinctions in natural history, it requires no little re- 

 finement of erudition to render the principle in all 

 cases practically applicable. An intelligent reader, 

 for example, who has not paid much attention to the 

 study of insects, upon being told that all insects either 

 masticate solids or suck fluids, may wish to verify the 

 distinction upon the first he meets with : and if he 

 chance to light upon a beetle or a gnat, he will find 

 that the former has jaws and the latter a sucker ; but 

 if a bee should come in his way, he would be some- 

 what embarrassed, for, upon perceiving its large jaws, 

 he would be disposed to arrange it among eating 

 insects, did he not advert to the well-known fact of 

 its lapping honey with its tongue — an organ no less 

 conspicuous than its jaws. Aristotle was shrewd 



* Hist. Animal, viii, II. 



t Entomologie Helvetique, Zuric, 1798. 



X Systemat. Catal. &c. 



