42 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



roads in the vicinity of London*. They do not seem 

 to be more choice in the quality of their water than 

 bees, who, most naturalists tell us, prefer that which 

 is stagnant and putrescentf. 



The tongue, which analogy points out as the chief 

 organ of taste, is, in insects, frequently very different 

 from the same organ in the larger animals ; but in 

 the locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets (Orthoptera, 

 OLIVIER), and in the dragon-flies (Libellvlina), 

 it is rounded and fleshy, somewhat resembling that 

 of quadrupeds J. The dragon-flies have, besides, a 

 sort of palate, consisting of a square fleshy cushion, 

 beset, like the upper surface of their tongue, with 

 minute black tasters (papillce) ending in a short 

 bristle. The same may be observed in many bee- 

 tles (Geotrupes, Dytiscus, fyc ), and it is proba- 

 ble it exists in most if not all other insects, though 

 hitherto unexamined, or, from the minuteness of the 

 parts, undiscovered. The hairs, which have just 

 been mentioned as arising from the tasters, occur on 

 the tongues of many insects, as in all the bees 

 (Apidfe, LEACH), and generally in the predacious 

 beetles (Adephaga, CLAIRVILLE), and are supposed 

 by Kirby and Spence to be mechanically useful for 

 securing food . It is more probable that, by pene- 

 trating into a morsel, they aid in distinguishing its 

 flavour. It is worthy of notice that the dung-beetle 

 (Geotrupes stercorarius), and some others, have the 

 hairs on their tongues bent back, like the tubercles 

 on the tongue of the cat and the lion, which we know 

 to be used mechanically in filing down, as it were, 

 portions of their food ||. In some insects there are 

 also projections on the tongue, similar to teeth; and 



* J. R. f Reaumur, v. 697. 



J Cuvier, Anatomie Compar. iii. 347. Intr. iii. 454. 



|| See Menageries, vol. i. page 179. 



