FOOD OF INSECTS. 397 



lancets, and two, even to the very handles, buck-hafted 

 carving-knives 3 . The blood-thirsty gnat has five, some 

 acutely lanced at the extremity, and others serrated on 

 one side. The flea, the spider, the scorpion have all in- 

 struments for taking; their food of a construction altoge- 

 ther different b . But it is impossible here to attempt 

 even a sketch of the variations in these organs which 

 take place in the apterous genera, and in many of the 

 dipterous larvae. Suffice it to say that they all manifest 

 the most consummate skill in their adaptation to the 

 purposes of the insects which are provided with them, 

 and which can often employ them not only as instru- 

 ments for preparing food, but as weapons of offence and 

 defence, as tools in the building of their nests, and even 

 as feet. 



Some insects in their perfect state, though furnished 

 with organs of feeding, make no use of them, and con- 

 sume no food whatever. Of this description are the 

 moth which proceeds from the silk-worm, and several 

 others of the same order; the different species of CEstrus, 

 and the Ephemerae, insects whose history is so well known 

 as to afford a moral or a simile to those most ignorant of 

 natural history. All these live so short a time in the 

 perfect state as to need no food. Indeed it may be laid 

 down as a general rule, that almost all insects in this 

 state eat much less than in that of larvae. The vora- 

 cious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly needs 

 only a small quantity of honey; and the gluttonous mag- 

 got, when become a fly, contents itself with a drop or 

 two of any sweet liquid. 



1 Plate VII. Fig. 5. b Plate VII. Fig. 8. 10. 



