52 HUMBLE CREATUBES. 



honeycomb, and there add food to the general store ; 

 hut if solid, and destined for the nourishment of the 

 insect itself, it passes down into the true stomach (c), 

 where it comes imder the influence of what are called 

 the gastric teeth, and undergoes a second mastication 

 while being digested. 



These gastric teeth, which are formed of silica, and 

 are consequently very hard, are present not only in 

 the stomach of the Bee, but in many other insects, 

 even in those that subsist on liquid nutriment; in 

 the Blow-fly and Butterfly, for instance, which suck 

 the juices of plants, &c., their structure is very com- 

 plicated, for, although of delicate proportions, they 

 have a curiously branched form. 



This may appear a somewhat superfluous endow- 

 ment on the part of Nature, and you will perhaps be 

 inclined to ask, what can be the use of these diminu- 

 tive teeth where the food is of such a character as to 

 need no mastication ? A little reflection wUl, how- 

 ever, show that it is in those very insects which sub- 

 sist on liquid food that they are the most wanted, for, 

 since they possess (as in the instances just quoted) no 

 masticating organs at the mouth, there is all the 

 more necessity for some internal contrivance to reduce 

 the solid alimentary particles that may enter at the 

 throat, either accidentally, or in consequence of the 

 food being of a rather more consistent nature than 

 usual ; and for every such contingency Nature makes 

 due provision. Now, in the Bee the gastric appa- 

 ratus is very simple, probably for the opposite reason 



