442 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
a protecting mantle, and is liable to all sorts of accidents, from 
the shocks received during the swimming of the beetle to and 
fro. The Hydrachna, with its membranes thus retracted, is really 
a nymph, and not a quiescent one, but an active creature, which 
nourishes itself and grows. The gullet of the nymph still traverses 
THE METAMORPHOSES OF “ydrachna globula. 
1. The perfect spider (natural size and magnified). 2. The larva (magnified). 
3. Anymph. 4. A nymph magnified, showing the eight-legged spider within. 5. The 
last form of nymph (magnified). 
the sucker, which is plunged into the body of the host, and a 
membranous prolongation of it has penetrated the flesh of the 
victim, and retains the sucker so tightly in contact with the 
muscles and juicy tissues that it remains in that position after 
the nymph has left its skin altogether. 
