90 EXTERNAI^ ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 



close the mouth as in Hymenoptera; in some instances not 

 even uniting, except in defence/ In others, as the beautiful 

 Cicindelites, the mandibles cross each other in front of the 

 mouth. In others, the mandibles are at their edges soft and 

 flexible. This is particularly the case with those beetles whose 

 food is the pollen of flowers, as the Cetoniidcs.^ Another 

 family, Aphodiidce, " whose food is the recent excrement of 

 cattle, has a similar peculiarity. In Orthoptera, particularly 

 the locust tribes, the mandibles are osseous, large, and power- 

 ful. Marcel de Serres discovers, as he imagines, an analogy 

 between the teeth which arm the mandibles of Orthopteray 

 and those possessed by the mammiferous animals. He accord- 

 ingly names them incisive, canine and molary. Your readers 

 will be pleased by a reference to his paper.^ Though specu- 

 lative in ideas, it is rigidly accurate in facts. I am not disposed 

 to apply to annulose animals the anatomical terms employed 

 for the vertebrates, unless their propriety be at once manifest.^ 

 In the present instance, moreover, the nomenclature of these 

 parts is not applicable to generic or other characters, and 

 therefore comes not within the compass of this essay. In 

 Hemiptera, they undergo a complete alteration ; and here, as 

 in Diptera, they are elongate, pointed, flexible, lancet-like, and 

 without the horizontal motion. 



Lingua, or tongue. The tongue of insects is an organ but 

 little known. This arises, in some measure, from its being gene- 

 rally inconspicuous : and partly from the application of the names 

 Ligula, Lingua, Languetie, Langiie, Tongue, &c. to a part, which 



' In Lucanus, the great Stag Beetle, more particularly ; this insect also em- 

 ploys his immense mandibles to pierce the tender bark of young trees. He 

 applies his antenna to the wound he has made, and if he finds that the sap flows, 

 he inserts the helmets of his feeler-jaws in the wound. He sucks up the sap as 

 it flows. 



' Mandibulae compressae, tenues, lanceolatae, membrana subquadrata intus 

 aiictae, hujus latere externo producto et basi vix corneis vel corneis. — MacLeay. 



" Mamlibulae clypeo obtutae, ad basin corncEe, deinde in laminam brevem, 

 compressam, dilatatam, coriaceam aut vix membranaccam productae. — MacLeay, 



^ Annales du Museum, No. XIV. p. 56. Les dents des ulonates peuvent se 

 diviser comme celle des quadrupedes en incisives, en laniaires ou canines, et en 

 molaires. — Marcel de Serres. 



7 Such terms as nose, ears, and hands have been applied to beetles ; do they 

 not tend rather to excite a smile, than convey a scientific idea ? I do not men- 

 tion this out of disrespect to the authors of such names, but to shew how very 

 widely fancy may lead us, if wc determine on providing analogies. 



