Sir J. Lubbock on the Metamorphoses of Insects. 381 
“9. The dimorphism thus produced differs in many important 
respects from the dimorphism of the mature form which we find, for 
instance, in the ants and bees; and it would therefore be convenient 
to distinguish it by a different name. 
** But there is still another aspect under which, if time had per- 
mitted, the metamorphoses of insects might have been regarded. 
In one or two cases, indeed, I have sketched very briefly and im- 
perfectly the habits and mode of life of particular insects. A whole 
course of lectures might be filled with such life-histories. The 
various manners in which different insects provide for the wants of 
their young are most remarkable, and all the more so because 
their wants are so different from those of the perfect insects them- 
selves. 
«Thus the butterfly, which lives on honey, and did live on leaves, 
lays her eggs ona twig. She seems to feel that honey will not suit 
her young, and that the leaves will wither and fall before another 
spring comes round. 
«The gnat, which lives in the air and feeds on blood, lays her eggs 
on the surface of water; and the sugar-loving housefly knows that 
very different food is necessary for her young. 
“The nut-weevil chooses the embryo of the nut; the goat-moth 
the bark of the willow; the RAzpiphora braves the dangersof the wasps’ 
nest; the Gstrus lays on cattle; the Ichneumon in caterpillars ; the 
gall-fly in the still almost imperceptible bud ; and some insects even 
in the eggs of others. 
“Generally the larvee forage for themselves ; but in some cases 
the mother supplies her young with food. Thus the solitary wasp 
builds a cell and fills it with other insects. If, however, she impri- 
soned them while alive, their struggles would infallibly destroy her 
ege ; if she killed them, they would soon decay, and the young larva, 
when hatched, would find, instead of a store of wholesome food, a 
mere mass of corruption. To avoid these two evils, the wasp stings 
her victim in such a manner as to pierce the centre of the nervous 
system, and the poison has the quality of paralyzing the victim with- 
out killing it. Thus deprived of all power of movement, but still 
alive, it remains some weeks motionless and yet fresh. 
“‘ But, perhaps, the ants are the most remarkable of all. They 
tend their young, they build houses, they make wars, they keep 
slaves, they have domestic animals ; and it is even said that in some 
cases they cultivate the ground. 
‘‘Nor must it be supposed that even now the habits of insects are 
anything like thoroughly known to us. In spite of Réaumur and De 
Geer, the two Hubers, and many other excellent observers, there is in 
this subject still a wide field for patient and conscientious labour ; 
the observations already made have been far from exhausting the 
mine, though amply sufficient to prove the richness of the ore.” 
