The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



ance it relapses Into an Inertia as complete as 

 that of the pseudochrysalis. On removing it 

 from its amber shell, we see that its faculty 

 of contracting or dilating at will is so com- 

 pletely paralysed that the stimulus of a needle 

 is unable to provolce it, though the integu- 

 ments have retained all their flexibility and 

 though no perceptible change has occurred 

 in the organization. The irritability, there- 

 fore, which in the pseudochrysalis is sus- 

 pended for a whole year, reawalcens for a 

 moment, to relapse instantly into the deep- 

 est torpor. This torpor will be partly dis- 

 pelled only at the moment of the passing 

 into the nymphal stage, to return immediately 

 afterwards and last until the insect attains 

 the perfect state. 



Further, on holding larvae of the third 

 form, or nymphs enclosed in their cells, in 

 an inverted position, in glass tubes, we never 

 see them regain an erect position, however 

 long we continue the experiment. The per- 

 fect insect itself, during the time that it is 

 enclosed in the shell, cannot regain it, for 

 lack of the requisite flexibility. This total 

 absence of movement in the tertiary larva, 

 when a few days old, and also in the nymph, 

 together with the smallness of the space left 

 free in the shell, would necessarily lead to 

 124 



