THE LARVA. ;J3 



gummoxa ; but such eggs as lie dispersed in any substance, as, for ex. 

 the eggs of the house fiy (Mitsca domestica),in dung, are called naked 

 (ova 7iuda). 



Besides those above indicated, there are many other differences, with 

 respect to their mode of being deposited, which, as they are peculiar 

 to certain genera or families, we can take notice of only in the natural 

 history of such groups. 



II. THK LARVA. (Larva.) 



51. 



As soon as the young insect breaks through the egg-shell, it is called 

 either LARVA, CATERPILLAR, or MAGGOT. In this state it frequently 

 appears in the shape of a long, more or less cylindrical, ringed worm, 

 either apparently without a head and feet, or having a head only, 

 or else provided with several (at least six) feet. In other, but less 

 numerous instances, the young assumes the form of the parent, although 

 necessarily much smaller, and always destitute of wings, whether the 

 parent insects possess them or not. Both kinds of metamorphosis thus 

 evidently differ considerably from each other from the mere form of the 

 young itself ; and in the progress of their development this difference 

 becomes still more perceptible ; for whilst, in the latter instance, the 

 young one gradually attains both the size and perfect form of its 

 parents by a frequent change of skin only, in the former species of 

 development we observe, also after successive changes of skin, a state 

 of repose, in which the insect neither takes food nor, in the generality 

 of cases, moves a period of its life distinguished by the name of PUPA 

 STATE ; and at the completion of this stage of its existence only, is it 

 that the PERFECT INSECT, or IMAGO, bursts forth in all its beauty. 



It was in reference to the actual differences of these modes of 

 development, that the names were applied which are used to distin- 

 guish them. Taken collectively, they are called METAMORPHOSES ; the 

 application of which name may, doubtlessly, be justified by the decided 

 dissimilarity of the same individual insect in its several stages of exist- 

 ence. The last kind of metamorphosis is called COMPLETE (metamorph. 

 completa), because in it alone there is a true metamorphosis of the 

 individual; the former, on the contrary, is called INCOMPLETE (m. 

 incomplete.), since in it there is, properly speaking, no change of form, 

 but merely a repeated casting off of the exterior skin. 



Although these terms are strictly derived from the condition of 

 change, other writers, Fabricius for instance, have had different views. 



D 



