HABITS OF INSECTS. 61 



entrance into the gullet is absolutely closed ; in 

 place of aU these, it has a proboscis, or trunk, or, as 

 it may be otherwise called, a pointed and hollow 

 aculeus or sucker, with which it pierces the skin, 

 and sucks the human blood, taking it for food into 

 the body." — Book of Nature, p. 33. 



Now, my dear Arnold, cast a retrospective glance 

 over the various formations of mouth which I have 

 described. In the Coleoptera, the powerful jaws 

 of the predaceous beetles (formidable weapons of 

 attack!), and the softer texture of the organs in those 

 tribes, which live on substances in a state of decay. 

 The strong mandibles of another order (Orthoptera), 

 adapted to the cutting of their appropriate vegetable 

 food. The various modifications of these instru- 

 ments, in the extensive genera of the order Hymeno- 

 ptera,\ giving to them the capability of being used 

 as spades, saws, augers, trowels, &c., and the new 

 and important offices which are performed by the 

 tongue. The change which is apparent when we 

 advance to the butterfly (Lepidoptera), and examine 

 the flexible siphon, through which its nectareous nu- 

 triment is imbibed. The singular and varied struc- 

 ture exhibited in the gnat or the fly {Diptera), and 

 so fitted for the suction of their liquid food. The 

 still further modifications presented by the lancets 

 and the sucker of the remaining orders {Aphaniptera 



