244 



PTILOTA : IMAGO EXTERNAL ANATOMY 



a totally different apparatus will be found in each, although per- 

 fectly adapted for the mode of feeding. The beetle is employed 

 in gnawing and tearing in pieces hard or fleshy substances : 

 its instruments of manducation are therefore horny and ro- 

 bust. The butterfly, on the contrary, has to suck its food at 

 the bottom of the tubes of flowers, and here in the glowing 

 beams of the sun it revels in its existence, and sips the most 

 delicious nectar. It is necessary for this purpose that it 

 should be provided with a long and slender instrument ; but 

 fi'om the very structure of this apparatus, it is essential for 

 its defence, that so soon as the insect has ceased feeding, the 

 instrument should be lodged m a i)lace of safety. It is there- 

 fore rolled up in a beautiful spii-al direction, and laid to rest 

 between a pair of hairy appendages which will defend it from 

 injury. If we observe a common fly sipping up a di'op of 

 spilt wine, or revelling upon a morsel of sugar, it will be found 

 that its mouth is totally unlike either of the former : it is 

 short, thick, and fleshy, and acts as a sucker, the nutriment 

 ascending through the canal which runs upwards into the 



Fig'. ?7. Antlia of Lepiiioptera (Spbiiix). 



throat. The aphides, and all their brethren, have a moutli 

 still differently constructed, being a long and slender-jointed 



