The appendages forming the parts of the mouth are paired, and consist of the mandibles, the maxillae, and the labium, the pair in this latter part being combined to form a single body. The buccal appendages are frequently spoken of as gnathites. The gnathites are some, if not all, of them composed of apparently numerous parts, some of these being distinct sclerites, others membranous structures which may be either bare or pubescent—that is, covered with delicate short hair. In Insects the mouth functions in two quite different ways, by biting or by sucking. The Insects that bite are called Mandibulata, and those that suck Haustellata. In the mandibulate Insects the composition of the gnathites is readily comprehensible, so that in nearly the whole of the vast number of species of that type the corresponding parts can be recognised with something like certainty. This, however, is not the case with the sucking Insects; in them the parts of the mouth are very different indeed, so that in some cases morphologists are not agreed as to what parts really correspond with some of the structures of the Mandibulata. At present it will be sufficient for us to consider only the mandibulate mouth, leaving the various forms of sucking mouth to be discussed when we treat of the Orders of Haustellata in detail.
The upper or anterior pair of gnathites is the mandibles, (Fig. 50, g). There is no part of the body that varies more than does the mandible, even in the mandibulate Insects. It can scarcely be detected in some, while in others, as in the male stag-beetle, it may attain the length of the whole of the rest of the body; its form, too, varies as much as its size; most usually, however, the pair of mandibles are somewhat of the form of callipers, and are used for biting, cutting, holding, or crushing purposes. The mandibles are frequently armed with processes spoken of as teeth, but which must not be in any way confounded with the teeth of Vertebrates. The only Insects that possess an articulated tooth are the Passalidae, beetles armed with a rather large mandible bearing a single mobile tooth among others that are not so. Wood Mason and Chatin consider the mandibles to be, morphologically, jointed appendages, and the latter authority states that in the mandible of Embia he has been able to distinguish the same elements as exist in the maxillae. In aculeate Hymenoptera the mandibles are used to a considerable extent for industrial purposes.
Fig. 51.—Mandibles, maxillae, and labium of Locusta viridissima: A, mandibles; B, maxillae (lateral parts) and labium (middle parts) united: a, cardo; b, stipes; c, palpiger; d, max. palp.; e, lacinia; f, galea; g, submentum; h, mentum; i, palpiger; k, labial palpus; l, ligula; m, paraglossa (galea); n, lacinia; o, lingua.
The maxilla is a complex organ consisting of numerous pieces, viz. cardo, stipes, palpiger, galea, lacinia, palpus. The galea and lacinia are frequently called the lobes of the maxilla. The maxilla no doubt acts as a sense organ as well as a mechanical apparatus for holding; this latter function being subordinate to the other. In Fig. 68, p. [122], we have represented a complex maxillary sense-organ.
The labium or lower lip has as its basal portion the undivided mentum, and closes the mouth beneath or behind, according as the position of the head varies. In most Insects the labium appears very different from the maxilla, but in many cases several of the parts corresponding to those of the maxilla can be clearly traced in the labium.
Fig. 52.—Maxilla and lower lip of Coleoptera. A, Maxilla of Passalus: a, cardo; b, stipes; c, palpiger; d, palpus; e, inner or inferior lobe or lacinia; f, outer or superior lobe or galea: B, Labium of Harpalus caliginosus: a, mentum; b, hypoglottis; c, palpiger (support of the labial palp); d, palp; e, ligula; f, paraglossa.
The mentum is an undivided, frequently very hard, piece, continuous with either the submentum or the gula, and anterior to this are placed the other parts, viz. the labial palpi and their supports, the palpigers; beyond and between these exists a central piece (Fig. 52, B, e), about whose name some difference of opinion prevails, but which may be called the ligula (languette of French authors), and on each side of this is a paraglossa. In the Orthoptera the single median piece—the ligula of Coleopterists—is represented by two divided parts. In some Insects (many Coleoptera) there is interposed between the mentum and the palpigers a piece called the hypoglottis (Fig. 52, B, b). It is not so well ascertained as it should be, that the pieces of the lower lip bearing the same names in different Orders are in all cases really homologous, and comparison suggests that the hypoglottis of Coleoptera may possibly represent the piece corresponding to the mentum of Orthopterists, the so-called mentum of beetles being in that case the submentum of Orthopterists.
There is another part of the mouth to which we may call special attention, as it has recently attracted more attention than it formerly did; it is a membranous lobe in the interior of the mouth, very conspicuous in Orthoptera, and called the tongue, lingua, or hypopharynx; it reposes, in the interior of the mouth (Fig. 51, o), on the middle parts of the front of the labium; it is probably not entirely lost in Coleoptera, but enters into the composition of the complex middle part of the lip by amalgamation with the paraglossae. It has recently been proposed to treat this lingua as the morphological equivalent of the labium or of the maxillae, giving it the name of the endolabium, but the propriety of this course remains to be proved;[[20]] the view is apparently suggested chiefly by the structure of the mouth of Hemimerus, a very rare and most peculiar Insect that has not as yet been sufficiently studied.