vi] LARVAE AXD THEIR ADAPTATIONS 79 



Examples might be multiplied, but enough have 

 been given to enforce the conclusion that the forms 

 of insect-larvae are wondrously varied, and that 

 frequently, within the limits of the same order or 

 even family, modifications of type may be found 

 which are suited to various modes of life adopted by 

 different insects. A survey of the multitudes of insect 

 larvae grubs, caterpillars, maggots living on land, 

 on plants, underground, in the water ; feeding on 

 leaves, in stems, on roots, on carrion, on refuse ; by 

 hunting or by lurking after prey ; as parasites or as 

 scavengers, brings home to us most strongly the con- 

 clusion that each larva is fitted to some little niche 

 in the vast temple of life, each is specially adapted to 

 its part in the great drama of being. 



CHAPTER VII 



PUPAE AND THEIR MODIFICATIONS 



THE pupal stage is characteristic of the life-story 

 of those insects whose larvae have wing-rudiments 

 in the form of inpushed imaginal discs, and in all 

 these insects there is, as we have seen, considerable 

 divergence in form between larva and imago. In 



