
10 THE INSECT WORLD. 
when one exists, that the food, separated by the masticatory 
organs of the mouth, undergoes another and more complete 
grinding. Its structure is suited to its office. It is, in fact, very 
muscular, often half cartilaginous, and strongly contractile. Its 
interior walls are provided with a grinding apparatus, which 
varies according to the species, and consists of teeth, plates, spines, 
and notches, which convert the food into pulp. It only exists 
among insects which live on solid matters, hard vegetables, small 
animals, tough skin, &c. This apparatus is absent in sucking 
insects and those which live on 
soft substances, such as the pollen 
of flowers, &c. 
The chylific ventricle is never 
absent; it is the organ which 
performs the principal part in 
the act of digestion. 
Two kinds of appendages be- 
long to the chylific ventricle, 
but only in certain families. The 
first are papille, in the form of 
the fingers of a glove, which 
bristle over the exterior of this 
organ, and in which it is believed 
that the food begins to be con- 
verted into chyle. The second 
are ceca, and larger and less 
numerous. 
They have been considered ‘as 
secretory organs, answering to 
the pancreas in vertebrate ani- 

| mals. 
Fig. 10.—Digestive apparatus of Carabus auratus. Fi g. 10, whi ch repres ents th e 
digestive apparatus of Carabus auratus, a common beetle, presents to 
the eyes of the reader the different organs of which we are speaking. 
A is the mouth of the insect, B the cesophagus, c the crop, D the 
gizzard, E the chylific ventricle, r and G the small and large 
intestines, and H the anus. 
We will not mention the other parts of the alimentary canal in 
