168 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



stages in the life of an Insect, known as the egg stage, the larval or 

 grub stage, the pupal or resting stage, and the adult or imago stage. 



Fig. 1. — Stages in the life-history of a beetle QOryctes) . a, eggs ;&, larva or 

 grub ; c, pupa or nymph ; d, adult or imago. 



(See fig. 1, a, b, c, d.) When all these four stages are present the 

 metamorphosis is said to be ' complete.' During the second of these 

 the Insect often eats voraciously and increases rapidly in bulk, develop- 

 ment taking place at a later stage. The pupal stage is absent in 

 some Orders of Insects, and the metamorphosis is then said to be 

 ' incomplete.' 



As is well known, some kinds of Insects form organised societies 

 and live together in communities — a method of existence displayed by 

 few other animals save man. We shall have occasion later to allude 

 to some of the Insects living in this fashion when we consider 

 the Termitidce ( the so-called white-ants ), and the Hymenoptera 

 aculeata ( the) bees, wasps, and ants ). It will be unnecessary here 

 to dilate upon the beauty of Insects. The beauty of the butterfly 

 is proverbial, and those who seek will find it reproduced again and 

 ao-ain in the numberless minute forms of the Insect World which 

 perhaps compose the greater bulk of Insect Life in India ( though 

 we are still very far from being able to make definite statements 

 on this subject as yet) — a world teeming with some of the most 

 beautiful and certainly not the least interesting of created beings, 

 and yet at present as little known as was America before the days 

 of Columbus. 



