METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS 



ii 



and other parts of the body are visible externally, is 

 called 'coarctate.'* 



In insects which undergo complete metamorphoses 

 the pupa is a most remarkable and characteristic 

 condition. Almost as long as the state continues, 

 the insect usually lies quiescent, capable of only the 

 faintest motion when touch- 

 ed, in a seeming deathlike 

 torpor, tasting no food, and 

 the vast change which was 

 beginning when in many 

 instances the larva took 

 shelter is gradually com- 

 pleted, incapacitating the 

 creature for a continuance 

 of its previous life, while 

 adapting it for life in the 

 future. It is no wonder that 

 the period of such organic 

 evolution is at the same 

 time one of great functional 

 inaction, which lasts longer 

 than the rest succeeding - n 



FIG. 2. Pupa of a longicprn beetle 



each minor Skin-Shedding (Batocera titana\ its limbs in separate 



sheaths folded beneath the breast and 



that has gone before. Res- bod y- 



piration and circulation, for instance, are reduced to a 

 minimum. Some insects remain in pupa for a 

 very long time, particularly true of the Sphinx 

 moths, which often continue in chrysalis for nine 

 months of the year. But on the other hand, as 

 regards ants and bees and many others, it is the 

 shortest period of all, and occupies little more than a 



