410 EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 



above. " Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus " and 

 if the Genius of Comparative Anatomy ever nodded, it 

 sometimes happened when he was examining the struc- 

 ture of insects. An instance of this with regard to the 

 mouth of the bee has been noticed by Mr. Savigny 3 ; 

 and indeed it is not wonderful that in so extensive an 

 undertaking, in which the number of examples to be ex- 

 amined upon every branch of his subject must be im- 

 mense, that he did not always scrutinize minutely those 

 that seemed less important. Every writer on every de- 

 partment of Natural Histoiy, especially where the ob- 

 jects of research, as in the insect world, are so infinite in 

 number, will be liable to such mistakes ; but these will 

 meet with due allowance from every candid mind — 

 " Hanc veniam damus, petimusque vicissim :" 



and I shall express my trust that you will overlook any 

 errors of mine ; and doubtless I shall not be free from 

 them — 



" Quas aut incuria fuclit, 



Aut huniana parum cavit natura " 



The two kinds of articulation of the head which our 

 learned author has stated as the principal ones, will, I 

 think, be found upon examination not so widely distant 

 as his expressions seem to indicate ; for in fact in all in- 

 sects, as well as the Orthoptera, this part is suspended by 

 a membrane or ligament which unites the margins of the 

 occipital cavity with those of the anterior one of the pro- 

 thorax : thus forming all round some protection to the 



a Mem.sur les Anim. sans Vcrtehr. I. i. 11—. Comp. Anat. Corn- 

 par, iii. 314 — . 



