STATES OF INSECTS. (Larva.) 157 
Some are very long, as those of most Lepzdoptera ; others 
very short, as that of the ant-lion (Myrmeleon). Many 
other peculiarities of form in individuals might be in- 
stanced ; but a dry enumeration of these would be of no 
great use to you. They can only be advantageously learn- 
ed by the study of good figures, and by watching the 
actual metamorphosis of the singularly-formed larvee 
that you meet with. 
Instead, therefore, of any further specification of indi- 
vidual forms, I shall now endeavour to give you, as far 
as my own knowledge of them and the information I can 
collect from other sources will enable me, a larger and 
more general view of the kinds of larvae; for analytical 
inquiries lose half their value and importance unless we 
proceed to apply them synthetically, by forming, if pos- 
sible, into groups the objects with which we are indivi- 
dually acquainted. 
Partial attempts at a synthetical arrangement with re- 
gard to the larvae of Lepidoptera and the saw-flies have 
been made both by Reaumur and De Geer. M. La- 
treille also has recently given a Tableau méthodique et 
général of articulated animals furnished with jointed 
legs, considered in their first state*. The former of 
these is chiefly founded upon the number of the pro- 
legs, and the latter upon the metamorphosis, prolegs, 
habits, head, and parts of the mouth, without any other 
notice of the configuration. Mr. W. S. MacLeay has 
started a perfectly new hypothesis upon this subject. In 
the progress of his inquiries into the natural arrange- 
ment of animals, particularly of znsects in the Linnean 
sense, he has been the first to observe, that the relation 
* N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. xvii. 329. 
