40 SUPPLEMENT ON 



ing insects, and belong to the orders, coleoptera, orthoptera, 

 neuroptera, hymenoptera, and most of the apterous families- 

 But we find that in the hymenoptera, especially in some 

 particular families, the jaws became elongated and flatted, 

 and form with the assistance of the under lip a sort of tube 

 and tongue, which imparts to these insects the double faculty 

 of masticating their food, and imbibing it by a kind of 

 suction. 



By the suctorial insects properly so termed, no aliments 

 can be swallowed but such as are in a liquid state. But the 

 organs which produce this suction are greatly diversified in 

 the different orders. In the hemiptera, this organ is an arti- 

 culated beak, a kind of tube composed of many pieces which 

 diminish in thickness from base to point, and in the interior 

 of which are contained fine and sharp bristles, usually three 

 in number. 



In others, as in the lepidoptera, the mouth consists in a 

 peculiar instrument, usually rolled back spirally, to which the 

 name of spiral tongue ox proboscis is given. This tongue forms 

 a canal composed of two semi-sheaths, which correspond to the 

 jaws of other insects, but exceedingl}'^ elongated. At the base 

 of these the palpi are found, often well supplied with hairs, and 

 also all the rudimen:s of the other parts of the mouth. For 

 a further description of this tongue or antlia, as Mr. Kirby 

 more properly terms it, must be reserved for the proper place ; 

 here we can afford but a hurried glance over insect confor- 

 mation. 



In the diptera, the tongue sometimes forms a fleshy pro- 

 boscis terminated by two lips, which perform the office of a 

 cupping-glass, at the centre of which is the orifice of the 

 alimentary canal. The genera in which this kind of instru- 

 ment is observed, are forced to take their aliment, such as 

 they find it on the surface of bodies, or to liquefy it so as to 

 be able to swallow it. In otliers, this instrument is what 



