142 



SECTION II. 



FOOD OF INSECTS. 



It appears to have been first observed by Aristotle, 

 that insects may be divided into such as are fur- 

 nished 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 pro- 

 minent light by Clairvillet, and has been adopted 

 by Stephens % and other eminent living naturalists. 

 In one point of view these two divisions are of consi- 

 derable 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 refinement 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 somewhat 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, 



* Hist, Animal, viii. 11. 



t Entomologie Heivelique, Zuric, 1798. 



I Systemat. Catal. &c. 



