io ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



hangs for a few seconds at rest. It suffers some powerful 

 contractions and alterations, and the wings become 

 much enlarged ; moreover, a very transparent fluid 

 secreted from the pores which facilitated the slipping 

 off of the ' discarded skin, is now diffused over the 

 whole body, and as the insect sinks into quiescence, 

 dries and hardens into a compact protective covering, 

 uniting and supporting the tender and erstwhile 

 separate limbs. 



To the pupa the terms nymph, chrysalis, and 

 aurelia are also given. The two latter names were 

 used by the older entomologists, the first by the 

 Greeks, the second by the Romans, for this stage 

 of transformation in the butterflies and moths, 

 being expressive of the glittering golden colours 

 or spots with which many pupae of butterflies are 

 adorned. ' Nymph ' is applicable only to those pupae 

 in which the limbs remain free in separate mem- 

 branous skin-sheaths, folded beneath the breast and 

 body (see Fig. 2), as in many of the beetle and bee 

 tribes, unlike the common uniform covering of Lepi- 

 doptera. At present the term is usually confined to 

 active Homomorphic insects when in this stage. The 

 word pupa itself, meaning an infant, was adopted by 

 Linnaeus as a general term for the period. It is 

 peculiarly appropriate, for insects in this state are 

 approaching their completion, but are not fully deve- 

 loped, either in their limbs or functions, and in many 

 cases recall the condition of a child swathed or bound 

 up as in barbaric fashion. The pupae of flies, where 

 the insect is enclosed within the smooth uniform case 

 formed of its own cast larval skin, but no limbs 



