No. l6.] INSECTS OF CONNECTICUT. 



33 



made by the caterpillar before transforming. Many insects 

 pupate in the ground. 



The imago or adult is the mature insect, fitted for repro- 

 duction, after which it lives but a short time. This is the only 

 stage in which we find fully developed wings. The adults of 

 many insects take very little or no food except perhaps the nectar 

 of flowers or the juices from mutilated plants or animals. 

 Beetles, however, feed as well as their larvae, and in some cases 

 do quite as much damage, and the adults of some other orders 

 also take food. Many insects pass the winter as adults, going 

 into protected places such as buildings, or under stones, fences, 

 or rubbish. 



Insects having the four well marked stages just described 

 are said to have complete transformations or metamorphoses. 

 Among these are included the butterflies and moths (Lepi- 

 doptera), beetles (Coleoptera), flies (Diptera), bees and ants 

 (Hymenoptera). 



Most of the other insects, and especially the Orthoptera 

 (grasshoppers, crickets, etc.), and the Hemiptera (plant lice, 

 scale insects, and true bugs) do not pass through these four 

 stages, but from the egg something hatches resembling the mature 

 insect. These are said to have incomplete transformations or 

 metamorphoses. Here we have three stages ; namely, egg, 

 nymph, imago. The nymph feeds and increases in size, molting 

 from time to time, and having a somewhat different appearance 

 after each molt, but gradually approaching the size and appear- 

 ance of the imago or adult. 



Many of these insects cause injury to plants in the adult as 

 well as in the nymph stages, and the winter may be passed in 

 each of the three stages. Thus almost all grasshoppers lay 

 eggs in the fall, and these do not hatch until the following 

 spring; but nymphs of certain species may be found on warm 

 days late in autumn and early in spring; while some of the true 

 bugs, like the squash bug (Anasa tristis DeG.), crawl into 

 protected places and pass the winter season as adults. 



