124 STATES OF INSECTS. 



one being very short, and consisting only of a single 

 joint. These maxillae of larvae were regarded by Reau- 

 mur and other writers as parts of the under-lip, on each 

 side of which they are situated ; and indeed, as well as 

 those in the perfect insect, they form a part of the same 

 machine, being connected by their base with the mentum, 

 which is part of the labium, but they are clearly analo- 

 gous to the maxillae of the imago. They are not to be 

 found in the larvae of many Dipterous insects, and per- 

 haps in some species belonging to other orders. In some 

 Neuropterous larvae, as those of the Libellulina MacLea}^, 

 the maxillae are of a substance quite as solid and horny as 

 the mandibles, which in every respect they resemble a . 



Under-lip (Labium). Between the two maxillae in the 

 larvae of most of the insects under consideration is a part 

 termed by Reaumur the middle division of the under-lip, 

 but which is in fact analogous to the whole of that organ 

 in the imago. This organ varies in shape, being some- 

 times quadrangular, often conical, &c. Interiorly it is 

 frequently connected with a more fleshy protuberance, 

 called the tongue by Reaumur b , and supplying the place 

 of the ligula in the perfect insect. On each side of the 

 apex of the under-lip is a minute feeler, and in the mid- 

 dle between these in the Lepidoptera and many others, is 

 a filiform organ, which I shall call the spinneret (Fusidus), 

 through which the larva draws the silken thread em- 

 ployed in fabricating its cocoon, preparatory to assuming 

 the pupa state, and for other purposes c . This organ is 



a Reaum. vi. t. xxxvii./. 5. e e. h Ibid. i. 125. 



c Plate XXI. Fig. 9. The organ with which the larvae of Heme- 

 robius, Myrmeleon, and Hydrophilus, spin their cocoons, is situated 

 in the anus. The spinneret of the Cossus is figured by Lyonnet Ana- 

 iom. t. u.f. 1. l, and jig. 9. 



