INSECTS : THEIR MOUTHS. 143 



tension and contraction at the will of the animal, being 

 sometimes pushed far out of the mouth, and at others 

 quite concealed within its sheath. " The manner," ob- 

 serves Mr. Newport, " in which the honey is obtained, 

 when the organ is plunged into it at the bottom of a 

 flower, is by lapping, or a constant succession of short 

 and quick extensions and contractions of the organ, which 

 occasion the fluid to accumulate upon it, and to ascend 

 along its upper surface, until it reaches the orifice of the 

 tube formed by the approximation of the maxilla above, 

 and of the labial palpi, and this part of the ligula 

 "below." 



Well might Swammerdam, when describing this ex- 

 quisite structure, humbly exclaim: — "I cannot refrain 

 from confessing, to the glory of the immense and incom- 

 prehensible Architect, that I have but imperfectly de- 

 scribed and represented this small organ ; for to represent 

 it to the life in its full perfection, as truly most perfect 

 it is, far exceeds the utmost efforts of human know- 

 ledge." 



Here you may see the implement with which the bug 

 performs its much-dreaded operation of blood-sucking ; 

 for though this is not the head of the Bed-bug, but of one 

 of the winged species that are found so abundantly on 

 plants, and which I have just obtained by beating the 

 hedge at the bottom of my garden, yet the structure 

 of the mouth is so exactly alike in all the members of 

 this immense family, that one example will serve for all 

 others. 



From the front of the head, which, owing to the manner 

 in which this part is carried, is the lower part, proceeds a 

 fine thread, about four times as long as the head itself, 

 and passing along between the fore legs, close to the 

 body, beneath the breast. It is, however, at the pleasure 

 of the animal, capable of being brought up so as to point 

 directly forward, and even projected in front of the head, 



