PREHENSION OF LIQUID FOOD. 1 15 



of two grooves, which, by the aid of a curious 

 apparatus of hooks, resembling those of the la- 

 minae of a feather already described,* lock into 

 each other, and can be either united into an air 

 tight canal, or be instantly separated at the 

 pleasure of the animal. Reaumur conceives that 

 the lateral tubes are intended for the reception 

 of air, while the central canal conveys the 

 honey, which the insect sucks from flowers, by 

 suddenly unrolling the spiral coil, into which 

 the proboscis is usually folded, and darting it 

 into the nectary.-f 



In the Hemiptera, the proboscis is a tube, 

 either straight or jointed, guarded by a sheath, 

 and acting like a pump. The Diptera have a 

 more complicated instrument for suction, con- 

 sisting of a tube, of which the sides are strong 

 and fleshy, and moveable in every direction, 

 like the trunk of an elephant : it has, at its ex- 

 tremity, a double fold, resembling lips, which 

 are well adapted for suction. The Gnat, and 

 other insects which pierce the skin of animals, 

 have, for this purpose, instruments termed, from 

 their shape and office, la?icets.\ In the gnat they 

 are five or six in number, finer than a hair, ex- 

 ceedingly sharp., and generally barbed on one 

 side : in the Tabamis, or horse-fly, they are 'flat, 



* Volume i. page 570. 



t Kirby and Spence's Entomology, vol. ii. p. 390. 



X Ibid, vol. iii. p. 467. 



