AGE OF THE LARVA. 195 



world, shall mount up as on eagles' wings, and be 

 carried whither it will through the pure regions of 

 the sky. 



The age to which the larva generally attains 

 before this change takes place is exceedingly va- 

 riable. To some it is permitted to reach the 

 venerable age of four or five years ; others, three ; 

 and many, not nearly so much. The dung and 

 fungus-feeding insects, as if hastened forward by 

 the warmth of their position, are at the end of 

 their larva life in a week ; others live a fortnight 

 in this state ; and others, several months, We 

 are told of a curious anecdote of a beetle which 

 had existed in a desk, set up in an office in Lon- 

 don, for upwards of twenty years, half of which 

 period, according to Messrs. Kirby and Spence, it 

 must have lived as a larva. But this is quite an 

 exception to the general rule. 



For some days before, the larva loses its long 

 distinguishing characteristic its appetite and 

 now forsakes the plants upon which it formerly 

 fed; or if it does not forsake them, no longer 

 consumes any part of them. It becomes, appa- 

 rently, in some degree sensible that it is approach- 

 ing the most dangerous period of the history of 



