. Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology. Biology; Physiology; Plant physiology; Natural theology. PREHENSION OF LIQUID FOOD. 87. ordinary mouth, a tube also provided for suction, in a dif- ferent part of the body, and leading into the same stomach.* When the instrument for suction extends for some length from the mouth, it is generally termed a proboscis: such is the apparatus of the butterfly, the moth, the gnat, the house fly, and other insects that subsist on fluid aliment. The pro- boscis of the Lejjidoptera, (Fig. 266,) is a double tube, con- struc
. Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology. Biology; Physiology; Plant physiology; Natural theology. PREHENSION OF LIQUID FOOD. 87. ordinary mouth, a tube also provided for suction, in a dif- ferent part of the body, and leading into the same stomach.* When the instrument for suction extends for some length from the mouth, it is generally termed a proboscis: such is the apparatus of the butterfly, the moth, the gnat, the house fly, and other insects that subsist on fluid aliment. The pro- boscis of the Lejjidoptera, (Fig. 266,) is a double tube, con- structed by the two edges being rolled longitudinally till they meet in the middle of the lower surface, thus form- ing a tube on each side, but leaving also another tube, intermediate to the two lateral ones. This middle tube is formed by the junction of two grooves, which, by the aid of a curious appara- tus of hooks, resembling those of the laminae of a feather already described,! lock into each other, and can be either united into an air tight canal, or be instantly separated at the pleasure of the animal. Reaumur conceives that the lateral tubes are intended for the reception of air, while the central canal is that which conveys the honey, which the insect sucks from flowers, by suddenly unrolling the spiral coil, into which the proboscis is usually folded, and darting it into the nectary.! In the Hemiptera, the proboscis is a tube, either straight or jointed, guarded by a sheath, and acting like a pump. The Diptera have a more complicated instrument for suc- tion, consisting of a tube, of which the sides are Mrong and fleshy, and moveable in every direction, like the trunk of an elephant: it has at its extremity a double fold, resemb- ling lips, which are well adapted for suction. The gnat, and other insects which pierce the skin of animals, have, for this purpose, instruments, termed, from their shape and ofiice, * Phil. Trans, for 1822, 442. •f Volume i. p. 393. \ Kirby an
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