78 INSECTS AND 
well illustrated in the thorax of the Wasp. In reality the 
thorax of this insect consists of three rings, with a super- 
numary one—the first and basal ring of the abdomen— 
thus forming a compact mass, consisting of four of these 
rings. But. all are so intimately cated into an almost 
spherical, rounded mass, which is due to the unequal size 
of the parts composing the rings, some being enlarged, 
and others either diminished in size, or wholly wanting, 
that it needs the sagacity of a Latreille, or an Audouin, 
those fathers of Entomology, to detect the actual number 
of the elemental rings. 
Appended to the head, as the legs to the thorax, are spe- 
cial organs of sight and touch, into which the brain is im- 
mediately projected; as the simple and compound eyes, 
and the antenne, each with their separate pair of nerves. 
These are placed in front of the mouth. Behind the 
mouth, and on each side, are the jaws or mandibles, the — 
| with the ir palpi (or touchers), and last of all, 
and Ae to the oak the labium, or under lip, and its - 
palpi. Before the larva leaves the egg, these four pair 
g appendages are much alike in form, budding out as 
simple tubercles, and their relative position and succession 
are as given above; but during growth they change their po- 
sition, crowd forward about the mouth-opening, so as to _ 
ee meaty all traces of their normal succession, and, in con- 
