CHAPTER III. 
The Mouth-parts. 
We do not speak of the mouth of an insect. An 
insect has no mouth in the same sense that higher 
animals have mouths. Students of insects speak 
of the mouth-parts, because the mouths of insects 
consist of various parts quite separate and inde¬ 
pendent of each other. Here is a drawing of the 
mouth-parts of a common grasshopper. Any pupil 
can find these and remove them one by one with a 
penknife. The insect should be killed first in a 
cyanide bottle and preserved in a solution of for¬ 
maldehyde or alcohol until ready to use. As each 
mouth-part is removed, it should be laid upon a 
card in the relative position it held before having 
been removed. Each part can then be studied by 
itself. 
These parts are: (i) an upper lip ( labium ) which 
hangs down over the other mouth-parts somewhat 
like an apron, partly concealing them. Just behind 
this come two hard-toothed organs called mandibles 
which are used for tearing or chewing the food. 
Next come the maxillae, each armed with a jointed 
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