94 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



to eat ; it has no other duty to perform at present 

 but to eat as fast and as much as it possibly can 

 in a certain time ; and it must be confessed, the 

 larva, generally speaking, leaves little to be de- 

 sired on the score of a sharp appetite. Unlike 

 other creatures who allow themselves a certain 

 period between their meals, the larva sets to its 

 feast and does not leave the table until it has 

 devoured all its contents, upon which it imme- 

 diately begins again elsewhere. No gourmand in 

 the world, whether among human beings or brutes, 

 can compare with the insect in this form for the 

 amount of food consumed. Morning, noon, and 

 night, is to it only a continued round of feasting ; 

 and, as may well be imagined, the larva grows 

 very rapidly accordingly. Some Iarva3 consume 

 animal, others vegetable food ; or, in the language 

 of science, some are carnivorous, some are grami- 

 nivorous or herbivorous, and some will eat anything 

 almost that comes before them these would be 

 called, and very appropriately so, omnivorous. 



Let us speak of carnivorous larvae first. The 

 larvae which have carnivorous propensities render 

 themselves often truly terrible to the insect world 

 around them. The most mighty warrior that ever 



