No insect is provided with any
viscera, or is supplied with fat; and these statements apply to all
animals devoid of blood. Some have a stomach also, and attached to
this the rest of the gut, either simple or convoluted as in the case
of the acris or grasshopper.
The tettix or cicada, alone of such creatures (and, in fact, alone
of all creatures), is unprovided with a mouth, but it is provided with
the tongue-like formation found in insects furnished with frontward
stings; and this formation in the cicada is long, continuous, and
devoid of any split; and by the aid of this the creature feeds on dew,
and on dew only, and in its stomach no excretion is ever found. Of the
cicada there are several kinds, and they differ from one another in
relative magnitude, and in this respect that the achetes or chirper is
provided with a cleft or aperture under the hypozoma and has in it a
membrane quite discernible, whilst the membrane is indiscernible in
the tettigonia.
Furthermore, there are some strange creatures to be found in the
sea, which from their rarity we are unable to classify. Experienced
fishermen affirm, some that they have at times seen in the sea animals
like sticks, black, rounded, and of the same thickness throughout;
others that they have seen creatures resembling shields, red in
colour, and furnished with fins packed close together; and others that
they have seen creatures resembling the male organ in shape and
size, with a pair of fins in the place of the testicles, and they aver
that on one occasion a creature of this description was brought up
on the end of a nightline.
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