36 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



cover the remaining oral organs, which consist (2) 

 of a pair of jaws called the mandibles, and (3) of a 

 second pair, the maxillse, there berag appended to the 

 latter another pair of lateral feelers (the maxiUary 

 palpi) : the maxillary organs work at right angles to 

 the upper and lower lip, that is to say, horizontally, 

 and operate after the manner of a pair of scissors. 



Now, in the Coleoptera, or Beetle tribes, especially 

 those that gnaw wood or other hard substances, the 

 jaws are very powerfully developed, whilst in some 

 other insects these organs are transformed into what 

 is termed a "proboscis" or suction-pump, with which 

 the creature secures the ambrosial juices of flowers. 

 Again, in the Fly, &c. there exist, coupled with this 

 proboscis, a pair of lancets (metamorphosed maxUlse), 

 wherewith the insect is enabled to puncture the sub- 

 stances from which it extracts the juices ; and this 

 type reaches its highest development in the dreaded 

 Gnat, where we find almost the whole apparatus to 

 consist of a series of long pointed instruments, that 

 inflict so painful a wound even upon man. 



But far more extraordinary than all these types, 

 and perfectly adapted in every respect to the ends 

 required, do we find the oral apparatus of the Bee, 

 which presents a beautiful combination of the fore- 

 going varieties of structure. 



Its mandibles form, when closed, the split, pointed 

 termiuation of the head (PI. III. fig. 1, a) ; but when 

 they are separated, they wiU be foimd to resemble a 

 pair of serrated or toothed pincers (PI. V. fig. \,bb). 



