VARIOUS FORMS OF LARV^. 89 



to what tribe of insects they belonged, merely 

 judging by their shape and character, we should 

 be sorely perplexed to do so, and if we did, we 

 should often in all probability be very far wrong. 

 We need not go far for an illustration, first, of a 

 larva like the perfect insect, and next, for one 

 totally unlike it. Taking a candle and exploring 

 into some snug hole near the kitchen fire-place, we 

 shall not be long, probably, before we extricate a 

 number of the larvse of the cricket. Those of the 

 bug also are very like the perfect insect ; so also 

 are young spiders, cockroaches and grasshoppers. 

 These all resemble more or less perfectly the in- 

 sect in its complete form. 



Even amongst the larvse not resembling the 

 perfect insect, a little attention will enable us to 

 perceive a sort of general resemblance between 

 those of different genera and species, which we 

 may call the Larva family likeness. This consists 

 in the form of the body, in a number of instances; 

 but in all in the ring-like marks or segments of 

 the body, as they are called, which are thirteen in 

 number. If the reader will take the trouble to 

 count the rings in the Iarva3 of different insects, he 

 will generally find that they are thirteen in num- 



