12G STATES OF INSECTS. 



other larvae this part is usually small and inconspicuous, 

 and serves merely for retaining the food and assisting in 

 its deglutition; but in these it is by far the largest organ 

 of the mouth, which when closed it entirely conceals ; 

 and it not only retains but actually seizes the animal's 

 prey, by means of a very singular pair of jaws with which 

 it is furnished. Conceive your under-lip (to have re- 

 course, as Reaumur on another occasion a , to such com- 

 parison,) to be horny instead of fleshy, and to be elon- 

 gated perpendicularly downwards b , so as to wrap over 

 your chin and extend to its bottom, — that this elongation 

 is there expanded into a triangular convex plate c , at- 

 tached to it by a joint d , so as to bend upwards again and 

 fold over the face as high as the nose, concealing not 

 only the chin and the first-mentioned elongation, but the 

 mouth and part of the cheeks c : conceive, moreover, that 

 to the end of this last-mentioned plate are fixed two other 

 convex ones, so broad as to cover the whole nose and 

 temples f , — that these can open at pleasure, transversely 

 like a pair of jaws, so as to expose the nose and mouth, 

 and that their inner edges where they meet are cut into 

 numerous sharp teeth or spines, or armed with one or 

 more long and sharp claws s : — you will then have as ac- 

 curate an idea as my powers of description can give, of 

 the strange conformation of the under-lip in the larvae of 

 the tribes of Libellulina ; which conceals the mouth and 

 face precisely as I have supposed a similar construction 

 of your lip would do yours. You will probably admit 



a Reaum. v. 135. b Ibid. vi. t. xxxvii./. 7. b p. ' Ibid, m c e. 



d Ibid./. 6. p. e Ibid. Compare/. 4 with/. 6, 7. 



r Ibid. t. xxxvi./ 12. s a e. 



s Ibid, n e, and xxxviii./. 7, dc; De Geer ii. /. xix./. 17. d g. 



