ON THE 



ORIGIN AND METAMORPHOSES 



OF INSECTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 THE CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



ABOUT forty years ago the civil and ecclesiastical 

 authorities of St. Fernando in Chili arrested a certain 

 M. Renous on a charge of witchcraft, because he kept 

 some caterpillars which turned into butterflies. 1 This 

 was no doubt an extreme case of ignorance ; it is now 



o / 



almost universally known that the great majority of 

 insects quit the egg in a state very different from 

 that which they ultimately assume ; and the general 

 statement in works on entomology has been that the 

 life of an insect may be divided into four periods. 



Thus, according to Kirby and Spence, 2 " The states 

 through which insects pass are four : the egg, the 

 larva, the pupa, and the imago'' Burmeister, 3 also, 



1 Darwin's " Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the 

 Countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle" p. 326. 



2 Introduction to Entomology, vi. p. 50. 



3 Manual of Entomology, p. 30. 



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