Hypermetamorphosis 



labrum and the complicated lamina formed 

 by the lip and the jaws leave between them 

 a narrow slit in which the mandibles 

 work. 



The legs are merely vestiges, for, though 

 they consist of three tiny cylindrical joints, 

 they are barely a fiftieth of an inch in length. 

 The creature is unable to make use of them, 

 not only in the liquid honey upon which it 

 lives, but even on a solid surface. If we 

 take the larva from the cell and place it on 

 a hard substance, to observe it more readily, 

 we see that the inordinate protuberance of 

 the abdomen, by lifting the thorax from the 

 ground, prevents the legs' from finding a 

 support. Lying on its side, the only possible 

 position because of its conformation, the 

 larva remains motionless or only makes a 

 few lazy, wriggling movements of the ab- 

 domen, without ever stirring its feeble limbs, 

 which for that matter could not assist it in 

 any way. In short, the tiny creature of the 

 first stage, so active and alert, is succeeded 

 by a ventripotent grub, deprived of move- 

 ment by its very obesity. Who would recog- 

 nize in this clumsy, flabby, blind, hideously 

 pot-bellied creature, with nothing but a sort 

 of stumps for legs, the elegant pigmy of but a 

 little while back, armour-clad, slender and 

 113 



