EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 409 | 
if the Genius of Comparative Anatomy ever nodded, it 
sometimes happened when he was examining the struc- 
ture of insects. An instance of this with regard to the 
mouth of the bee has been noticed by Mr. Savigny? ; 
and indeed it is not wonderful that in so extensive an 
undertaking, in which the number of examples to be ex- 
amined upon every branch of his subject must be im- 
mense, that he did not always scrutinize minutely those 
that seemed less important. Every writer on every de- 
partment of Natural History, especially where the ob- 
jects of research, as in the insect world, are so infinite in 
number, will be liable to such mistakes; but these will 
meet with due allowance from every candid mind— 
“‘Hanc veniam damus, petimusque vicissim :” 
and I shall express my trust that you will overlook any 
errors of mine; and doubtless I shall not be free from 
them— 
« _ — Quas aut incuria fudit, 
” 
Aut humana parum cavit natura 
The two kinds of articulation of the head which our 
learned author has stated as the principal ones, will, I 
think, be found upon examination not so widely distant 
as his expressions seem to indicate; for in fact in all in- 
sects, as well as the Orthoptera, this part is suspended by 
a membrane or ligament which unites the margins of the 
occipital cavity with those of the anterior one of the pro- 
thorax: thus forming ail round some protection to the 
organs that are transmitted from the head through the 
* Meém. sur les Anim. sans Vertébr.1.i,11—. Comp. Anat. Com- 
par. iil. 314—., 
