6 INSECTS IXJUmOUS TO VEGETATION. 



therein its future form is more or less masked or concealed. 

 This name is not only applied to gi'ubs, caterpillars, and 

 maggots, and to other insects that undergo a complete trans- 

 formation, but also to young and wizigless grasshoppers, and 

 bugs, and indeed to all young insects before the wings begin 

 to appear. In this first period, which is generally much the 

 longest, insects are always wingless, pass most of their time in 

 eating, grow rapidly, and usually cast off their skins repeatedly. 

 The second period, wherein those insects that undergo a partial 

 transformation, retain their activity and their appetites for food, 

 continue to grow, and acquire the rudiments of wings, while 

 others, at this age, entirely lose their larva form, take no food, 

 and remain at rest in a deathlike sleep, — is called ihe pupa 

 state, from a slight resemblance that some of the latter present 

 to an infant trussed in bandages, as was the fashion among 

 the Romans. The pupos from caterpillars, however, are more 

 commonly called chrysalids, because some of them, as the name 

 implies, are gilt or adorned with golden spots ; and grubs, after 

 their first transformation, are often named nymphs, for what 

 reason does not appear. At the end of the second period, 

 insects again shed their skins, and come forth fully grown, and 

 (with few exceptions) provided with wings. They thus enter 

 upon their last or adult state, wherein they no longer increase 

 in size, and during which they provide for a continuation of 

 their kind. This period usually lasts only a short time, for 

 most insects die immediately after their eggs are laid. Bees, 

 wasps, and ants, however, which live in society, and labor 

 together for the common good of their communities, continue 

 much longer in the adult state. 



In winged or adult insects, two of the transverse incisions, 

 with which they are marked, are deeper than the rest, so that 

 the body seems to consist of three principal portions, the first 

 whereof is the head, the second or middle portion the thorax, 

 or chest, and the third or hindmost the abdomen, or hind-body. 

 In some wingless insects these three portions are also to be 

 seen ; but in most young insects, or larvae, the body consists of 

 the head, and a series of twelve rings or segments, the thorax 

 not being distinctly separated from the hinder part of the body, 

 as may be perceived in caterpillars, grubs, and maggots. 



