Packaud] insects op THE GAEDEIST. H 



have ahvays agreed Avith those drawn from the imago, can 

 they again be arranged in a natural method by the sole con- 

 sideration of tlieir chrysalid characters. 



When the insect breaks fortli from its clir^-salis, we can 

 then see how wonderfully complex is the outer crust that 

 gives form to the creature and protects its vital parts. At 

 first sight we see the body divided into three portions, to 

 which naturalists give the name of head, thorax and abdo- 

 men, terras borrowed from the anatomj' of man himself, and 

 to be retained in science only until more appropriate names 

 are suggested. It is as if we should take a wormlike, cylin- 

 drical figure consisting of successive rows of cylinders, and 

 should constrict it in two places, thereby dividing the whole 

 bod}' into three sections or regions. Of these regions the 

 first is the smallest and most unlike the two others in shape, 

 and besides organs of special sensation is provided with 

 chewing organs, while within is an enlarged pair of nerve 

 knots serving as some sort of a brain, though hardly larger 

 than those snppl3ing the remainder of the body. This re- 

 gion constitutes the head. 



Larger than the head, inasmuch as it is to support the 

 organs of locomotion, is the middle region or thorax, which 

 supports the legs and two pairs of wings ; while the largest 

 portion of the body is the l^ulky abdomen, which retains very 

 much of the original wormlike form of tlio larva, and is the 

 seat of the reproductive system. But wei-e the contour of tlie 

 rings that make up these sections of the hard outer crust 

 still continuous and unbroken, we should have the poor 

 victims enclosed in jackets of the straitest kind. Whence 

 comes theli all the grace and freedom of action that the but- 

 terfly and ichneumon-fly possess ? It is in the fact that the 

 whole outer crust is subdivided into portions finely hinged 

 together by tough membranes, and forming points of attach- 

 ment to thousands of little muscular fibres within, thus 

 giving it a surprising degree of flexibility. Besides these 



11 



