CURIOSITIES OF METAMORPHOSIS. 15/ 



a certain and definite stage — that stage being determined by 

 hereditary pecuharities. 



The metamorphoses of the Hydrocmnpid(2 are v^ery interesting, 

 on account of the extraordinary change which occurs in the con- 

 dition of hfe between a swimming larva and a gay moth, to which 

 water is almost certain death. The examples of the corresponding 

 transformations of the gaily-coloured flies that lead aquatic exis- 

 tences in the larva state naturally rise up before us, as also do 

 the Zoea of the crustaceans, and all these peculiarly allied forms 

 become more strongly than ever united in a common ancestry. 



FEMALE AND MALE MOTHS OF Climatobia bruviata. 



Retrograde metamorphosis, that is, a transformation which, 

 when completed, leaves the insect less elaborately organised than 

 before, is observed in the females of Psyche and Orgyia, and 

 several other p^enera. The female of the Winter Moth has no 

 wings developed, that of Climatobia hrumata has very small 

 wings, and Psyche is not much more than an egg-bag, not having 

 even the locomotive power of the caterpillar. Why the male 

 should undergo a progressive metamorphosis, and receive addi- 

 tional organs in the usual manner, and why the female, on the 

 contrary, should positively retrograde in its evolution, is impos- 

 sible of explanation at present. There is no evidence to prove 

 that a difference exists in the caterpillars which turn eventually 

 to the male and female moths, and all of them partake of the 

 same kind of food. The legless and wingless females of Psyche 

 are, perhaps, more retrograde than those of Orgyia. The females 

 of Fiimca and Hibcrnia have legs and antcnnx, and, therefore, 

 their development is in excess of that of Psyche. 



It has been mentioned that the females of a genus of the 



