Microscopical Essays. ijg 



feme can extend or contracl it; others roll up theirs with dex- 

 terity ; in feme it is inclofed in a fheath, with the pointed end of 

 which they pierce the fub fiances which contain their food, and 

 then extract the j lice with their tongue ; in many it is placed in 

 a groove under the belly ; taper and fpiral in the butterfly ; tubu- 

 lar and flefhy in the fly ; in feme it is long, and in others fhort, 

 but in all affording a fund of amufement. for the mierofcope. 



M. De Geer * has given us an account of a very curious cir- 

 eumflance concerning the tongue of the papillon de faules. f Hav- 

 ing cut off the tongue from the butterfly, almoft as foon as it was 

 emancipated from the chryfalis, it moved and rolled itfelf up at 

 intervals for a confiderable time : an hour after it had been cut 

 off, it repeated the fame motions, recommencing them every time 

 it was touched. The fame effect does not follow if the butterfly 

 has been freed, from the chryfalis a few days. 



The ftructure of the eye is, in all creatures, a molt admirable 

 piece of mechanifm, but in none more fo than in thofe of infe&s : 

 there is no part of thefe fmall creatures which exhibits more 

 clearly the prodigious art with which they are organized, and 

 (hews how many wonders efcape the natural fight of man. The 

 eyes are very different in different fpecies, varying, in number, 

 fituation, connection, figure, and fimplicity of conftruclion. The 

 greater part have two eyes, but in the monoculus they approach 

 fo near to each other as to appear like one ; the gyrinus has four 

 eyes, the fcorpion fix, the fpider eight, and. the fcolopendra three. 



The 



* De Geer, Memoires pour fervir a L'Hiftoire des Infedles, torn. I. p. 77. 

 t Papilio Antiopa, Lin. Syft. Nat. p. 776, N° 165. 



