TASTE IN INSECTS. 



87 



for the sake of the salts which they contain, and which they 

 imbibe, it is further concluded, for a like purpose to that 

 wherewith we, lovers in general of sweets, are accustomed to 

 take spring-doses of saline and other unpalatable flavours. 



With regard to the particular organ whereby the taste of 

 Insects is chiefly exercised, both analogy and observation point 

 to the mouth and tongue. In Dragon-flies, Grasshoppers, 

 and Crickets, this little member is rounded, and somewhat 

 resembling that of quadrupeds ; in others, its shape is curiously 

 varied; in the Wasp, forked like a serpent's; in Saw-flies, 

 triply divided ; in Bees, long and tubular ; in Bugs, awl-shaped 

 and sharp ; but in all, as has been proved by recent discovery, 

 the organs of taste and digestion are moistened and kept in 

 order by a due supply of saliva from pipes opening sometimes 

 into the mouth, sometimes into the gullet, and sometimes into 

 the stomach, as may be most suitable for the purposes of 

 digestion, and according to the greater or less solidity of food. 



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