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. In some again it is hard, in
others soft or flesh-like. Thus even the Crustacea, the Carabi for
instance and the like, and the Cephalopods, such as the Sepias and the
Poulps, have some such part inside the mouth. As for the Insects, some
of them have the part which serves as tongue inside the mouth, as is
the case with ants, and as is also the case with many Testacea,
while in others it is placed externally. In this latter case it
resembles a sting, and is hollow and spongy, so as to serve at one and
the same time for the tasting and for the sucking up of nutriment.
This is plainly to be seen in flies and bees and all such animals, and
likewise in some of the Testacea. In the Purpurae, for instance, so
strong is this part that it enables them to bore holes through the
hard covering of shell-fish, of the spiral snails, for example, that
are used as bait to catch them. So also the gad-flies and cattle-flies
can pierce through the skin of man, and some of them even through
the skins of other animals. Such, then, in these animals is the nature
of the tongue, which is thus as it were the counterpart of the
elephant's nostril. For as in the elephant the nostril is used as a
weapon, so in these animals the tongue serves as a sting.
In all other animals the tongue agrees with description already
given.
Book III
1
WE have next to consider the teeth, and with these the mouth, that
is the cavity which they enclose and form
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