47^ TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



sists of a spiny ramus, or oar-shaped limb, not jointed in the 

 Scalpelhim, but many-jointed in other genera. The other pairs 

 have each two rami, supported on a common stem or upper leg, 

 and they are jointed, and the longer spines upon them are beauti- 

 fully feathery. The end of the body or abdomen ends a little 

 beyond the posterior end of the carapace in a slightly upturned 

 horny point, and a short distance in front of this there is a strong 

 forked projection. 



Between the points whence the three pairs of legs start from 

 the body, there is a mouth, in the shape of a proboscis, and an 

 oesophagus, which loses itself internally amidst the cellular and 

 oily matter filling the animal. There are some spines on the 

 hinder legs close to the body, and in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the mouth (which is thus far back), which appear to 

 come for the purposes of prehension ; they grow rapidly, and 

 act like the mandibles and maxilla of mature Cirripedes for seizing 

 the prey. The first pair of legs answers to the outer pair of 

 jaw legs {inaxillopodd) of the higher Crustacea, and the other four 

 legs to the first two thoracic limbs in the same animals ; the 

 mouth, in the larva, being between the bases of the hind legs. 



The young larva swims actively by means of its oar-like legs, 

 and in a day or two changes its skin, and after that proceeding 

 the end of the carapace is seen to be elongated into a point, and 

 the end of the abdomen becomes developed in Lcpas into a single, 

 tapering, spinose projection. In other genera there are different 

 methods of growth, so far as these endings are concerned. 



The first skin shedding or moult may take place within the 

 sac of the parent. The carapace or shell covers the dorsal or 

 back surface, and in the larva of the first stage is not marked 

 with joints or segmentations. Some kinds gain the eye after the 

 first moult, and others, which had a single eye at birth, begin 

 to show a double organ after the skin shedding. The antennae 

 increase in length after the first moult, and before that period 

 there are no traces of jaws or other legs behind the three pair. 



The larva oiLepas in the second stage was described by Burmeis- 

 ter, and great changes must have occurred during its metamorphosis. 

 The carapace has greatly altered in its character, and two fleshy 

 projections from the front of it, by which the creature adheres to 



