INSECTS : TUEIR FEET. 135 



stuck out on cacli side at right angles ; the redonbt- 

 able monster whicli little boys who bathe hold in such 

 salutary awe under the name of Toe-biter. AVe have 

 turned the tables upon the warrior, and have bitten his 

 toe — off, and here it is. This is the tarsus of one of the 

 fore limbs. 



The peculiarity that first strikes us is that the first 

 three joints are as it were fused into one, and dilated so 

 as to make a large roundish plate. The under surface 

 of this broad plate is covered with a remarkable array 

 of sucking disks, of which one is very large, occupying 

 about a fourth part of the whole area. It is circular, 

 and its face is strongly marked with numerous fibres 

 radiating from the centre. Near this you perceive two 

 others of similar form and structure, but not more than 

 one tenth part of its size ; one of these, moreover, is 

 smaller than the other. Indeed, the size and number 

 of these organs differ in different individuals of the 

 same species. 



The greater number of the suckers are comparatively 

 minute ; but they are proportionally multitudinous and 

 crowded. Each consists of a club-shaped shaft, with a 

 circular disk of radiating fibres attached to its end. 

 The whole apparatus constitutes a very effective instru- 

 ment of adhesion. 



There is a somewhat similar dilatation of the first 

 joints of the tarsus, but for a very different object, in 

 the Honey-bee ; and it is particularly worthy to be ob- 

 served, not only for the interesting part which it plays 

 in the economy of the insect, but for the example it af- 

 fords us of the adaptation of one and the same organ to 

 widely different i^ses, by a slight modification of its 

 etructure. 



