210 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



the meat-fly. This larva, when its days in that 

 condition are at their close, quits its long greedily- 

 devoured and disgusting food, and penetrates into 

 the earth ; there it contracts its body in a singu- 

 lar manner, and its skin becomes thickened and 

 hard, so as to form a sort of parchment-like case, 

 inside which its jaws are cast off, instead of out- 

 side, as is commonly the rule. " Were such an 

 extraordinary transformation as this to happen 

 to one of the larger animals, it would be held forth 

 as altogether miraculous," writes Mr. Rennie. 

 "Were a lion or an elephant, for example, to coil 

 itself up into a ball, compressing its skin into 

 twice the thickness and half the extent, while it 

 remained uniform in shape and without joinings 

 or openings: and at the same time were it en- 

 tirely to separate its whole body from this skin, 

 lie within it, as a kernel does in a nut, or a chick 

 in an egg, throwing off its now useless tusks into 

 a corner ; and then, after a space, should it ac- 

 quire wings, break through its envelope, and take 

 its flight through the air, there would be no 

 bounds to our admiration. Yet the very same 

 circumstances in miniature take place every day 

 during summer, almost under the eye of every 



