INSECTS. 215 



would be, for the colle?tmg of the proper nou rishment oi the 

 animal, is sufficiently evident. The food of the bee is the 

 nectar of flowers ; a drop of syrup, lodged deep in the bottom 

 of the corollsB, in the recesses of the petals, or down the neck 

 of a monopetalous glove. Into these cells the bee thrusts its 

 long narrow pump, through the cavity of which it sucks up 

 this precious fluid, inaccessible to every other approach. It 

 is observable also, that the plant is not the worse for wh.it 

 the bee does to it. The harmless plunderer rifles the sweets, 

 but leaves the flower uninjured. The ringlets of which the 

 proboscis of the bee is ccmposed, the muscles by which it is 

 extended and contracted, form so many microscopical won- 

 ders. The agility also with which it is moved can hardly 

 fail to excite admiration. But it is enough for our purpose 

 to observe in general, the suitableness of the structure to the 

 use, of the means to the end, and especially the wisdom by 

 which nature has departed from its most general analogy — 

 for animals being furnished Avith mouths are such — when the 

 purpose could be better answered by the deviation. 



In some insects, the proboscis, or tongue, or trunk is shut 

 up in a sharp-pointed sheath ; which sheath being of a much 

 firmer texture than the proboscis itself, as well as sharpened 

 at the point, pierces the substance which contains the food, 

 and then 02Je?7S within the luouncl, to allow the inclosed 

 tube, through which the juice is extracted, to perform its 

 office. Can any mechanism be plainer than tliis is, or sur- 

 pass this ? 



V. The r/icta7?ior]}hosis of insects from grubs into moths 

 and flies, is an astonishing process. A hairy caterpillar is 

 transformed into a butterfly. Observe the change. We 

 have four beautiful wings where there were none before ; a 

 tubular proboscis in the place of a mouth with jaws and 

 teeth ; six long legs instead of fourteen feet. In another cas-e 

 we see a Avhite, smooth, soft worm tiu'ned into a black, hard, 

 erustaceous beetle with gauze wings. These, as I said, are 

 .istonishing processes, and must require, as it should seem, a 



