STATES OF INSECTS. (Larva.) 133 
parts are less distinctly marked in some than in others. 
Thus in the legs of a caterpillar, or the grub of a capri- 
corn-beetle, at first you would think there were only three 
or four joints besides the claw; but upon a nearer inspec- 
tion, you would discover at the base of the leg the rudi- 
ments of two others*, in the latter represented indeed by 
the fleshy protuberance from which the legs emerge. 
In the larvee of the predaceous Coleoptera, the hip and 
trochanter are as conspicuous nearly as in~the perfect 
insect ; and the tarsus, which still consists of only a sin- 
gle joint, is armed with two claws. In those of the 
Neuroptera order, in which all the joints are very con- 
spicuous, the tarsi are jointed, as well as two-clawed°. 
The legs of larvee are usually shorter than those of the 
perfect insect, and scarcely differ from each other in. 
shape, for they all gradually decrease in diameter from 
the base to the apex. This is the most usual conforma- 
tion of them in Lepidopterous, Hymenopterous, and 
some Coleopterous larveze, (those of the capricorn-beetles 
are very short and minute, so as to be scarcely visible, ) 
in which they are so small as to be concealed by the body 
of the insect¢. - In Neuropterous larva, however, and 
* Lyonnet Anatom. t. iil. f. 8. Coxraxz. Trachanter c. Femur yp. Ti- 
biar. Tarsus ¥. Claw c. 
> De Geer iv. t. xiii. f. 20; and ¢. xv. f. 16. 
© Ibid. ii. ¢. xvi. f.5, 6,7.de: and t. xix. f.4.ef gh. 
4 The larva of a scarce moth (Stauropus Fagi. See Pirate XIX. 
Fic. 4) is an exception to this. The first pair of its legs are of the 
ordinary stature, but the two next are remarkably long, and so thin 
and weak as to be unable to bear the body. Pezold. 119. Another 
minute caterpillar described by Reaumur has the third pair of the 
legs apparently fleshy and singularly incrassated at the apex inte a 
pyriform figure, terminated by a pair of claws. This conformation 
is for some particular purpose in the economy of the animal, since 
they are the most busily employed of all in arranging the threads of 
