62 THE CLASS OF INSECTS. 



are gradually released, and with them the antennae, palpi, and 

 legs, and the larva removes itself entirely from the shell and 

 membranes. In this process of evolution the young Melo'e 

 throws off two distinct coverings : first, the shell with its lining 

 membrane, the analogue of the membrane in which, as I have 

 elsewhere shown,* the 3'oung Myriopod is inclosed, and re- 

 tained several days after the bursting of the ovum, and which 

 represents in the Articulata, not the allantois, but apparently 

 the amnion, of Vertebrata ; next, the first, or foetal deciduation 

 of the tegument, analogous probably to the first change of skin 

 in the Myriopod, after it has escaped from the amnion, and 

 also to the fii'st change which the j'oung Arachnidan inA'ariably 

 undergoes a few daj's after it has left the egg, and before it 

 can take food. This tegument, which, perhaps, may be analo- 

 gous to the vernix caseosa of Vertebrata, thrown off at the 

 instant of birth, is left b}^ the young Meloe with the amnion 

 in the shell ; and its separation from the body, at this early 

 period, seems necessary to fit the insect for the active life it 

 has commenced." (Linn. Trans, xx. p. 306, etc.) 



The larva state. The larva (Latin larva, a mask) was so 

 called because it was thought to mask the form of the perfect 

 insect. The larvae of Butterflies and Moths are called cater- 

 pillars; those of Beetles, ^^r«6s; and those of the two-winged 

 Flies (Diptera) maggots; the larvae of other groups have no 

 distinctive common names. 



As soon as it is hatched the larva feeds voraciously, as if in 

 anticipation of the coming period of rest, the pupa state, for 

 which stores of fat (the fatty bodies) are developed for the 

 supply of fat globules out of which the tissues of the new 

 body of the pupa and imago are to be formed. 



Most larvffi moult, or change their skin, four or five times. 

 In the inactive thin-skinned larvfe, such as those of Bees, 

 Wasps, and Gall-flies, the moults are not apparent ; as the 

 larva increases in size it out-gi"ows the old skin, which comes 

 off in thin shreds. But in the active larvae, such as cater- 

 pillars, grasshoppers, and grubs, from the rapid absorption of 

 vessels in the outer layer of the skin, just before the change, 



• Philosophical Transactions, Pt. 2, 1841, p. 111. 



