6 
INSECTS. 
rally known by the name of maggots, and are of a 
thick and short form. Those of Dragon-Flies, 
Dytisci or Water-Beetles, and many other Insects, 
are of highly singular forms, and differ perhaps 
more from that of the complete insect than any 
others except those of the Butterfly tribe. 
Some Insects undergo no change of shape, but 
are hatched from the egg complete in all their 
parts, and undergo no farther alteration than that 
of casting their skin from time to time, till at 
length they acquire the complete resemblance of 
the parent animal. 
It is in the Larva or caterpillar state that most 
insects are peculiarly voracious, as in many of the 
common caterpillars of Moths and Butterflies. In 
their complete state some insects, as Butterflies 
for instance, are satisfied with the lightest and 
most delicate nutriment, while others, as several 
Beetles, Dragon-Flies, &c. &c. devour animal and 
vegetable substances with a considerable degree 
of avidity. 
When the time arrives in which the Larva or 
caterpillar is to change into the next state, viz. 
that of Chrysalis or Pupa, it ceases to feed, and 
having placed itself in some quiet situation for the 
purpose, lies still for several hours, and then by 
a kind of laborious effort, frequently repeated, 
divests itself of its external skin, or larva coat, and 
iinmediately appears in the very difterent form of 
a chrysalis or pupa. 
The Pupa, or Chrysalis, differs in the different 
tribes of Insects almost as much as the Larva. In 
