STATES OF INSECTS. (Lgg.) 65 
a larva, as all other insects’ eggs do, but perfect flies in 
the winged state—inferred, and doubtless with reason, 
that they are not real eggs, but: pupze, or larvee just 
ready to assume the pupa state, which, however strange 
it may seem, have passed the egg and larva states in the 
body of the mother?. 
Insects, therefore, as to their mode of birth, may be 
divided into— 
I, Ovo-viviparous, subdivided into— 
1. Larviparous, coming forth from the matrix of 
the mother in the state of larvae, as the Scor- 
pion (Scorpio), the Flesh-fly (Sarcophaga), the 
Plant-louse (Aphis), &c. 
2. Pupiparous, continuing in the matrix of the mo- 
ther during the larva state, and coming forth in 
that of pupa, as the Forest-fly (Hippobosca 
equina), the Sheep-louse (Melophagus ovinus), 
the Bat-louse (Nycteribia Vespertilionis), &c. 
II. Oviparous. All other insects. . 
Our business for the remainder of this letter will be 
with the latter description of these little animals. 
The unerring foresight with which the female deposits 
her eggs in the precise place where the larvae, when ex- 
cluded, are sure to find suitable food; and the singular 
instruments with which, for this purpose, the extremity 
of their abdomen is furnished, have been noticed in a 
former letter”, and those last mentioned will be adverted 
to in a future one. I shall now, therefore; confine myself 
to other circumstances connected with the subject, ar- 
ranged for the sake of order under several distinct heads, 
* Reaum. vi. Mém. xiv. De Geer, vi. 280. 
® See Vou. J. Lett. xr. 
VOL. III. F 
