55 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE CHANGES OF INSECTS. 



THE changes, or metamorphoses of insects, have already 

 been referred to, and it is time to give some account of 

 the various characters of these changes. 



In the butterfly and moth tribe they are familiar to 

 all, while perhaps there are many persons to whom the 

 fact will be new, that the process of changing is not con- 

 fined to butterflies and moths, but that beetles, flies, 

 wasps, grasshoppers, and, indeed, all true insects 

 (see p. 23) undergo changes of like nature, though not 

 in all points the same. 



In describing these metamorphoses, the butterfly ap- 

 pears to be the most suitable, because the best known, 

 example. 



From the egg of the butterfly proceeds at first a 

 minute caterpillar, which feeds and grows until, having 

 outgrown its skin, this bursts, and the little caterpillar 

 emerges in a newer and larger garment which has been 

 preparing beneath the first. This process (called moult- 

 ing) is repeated from time to time until the caterpillar 

 has arrived at its full growth ; when, by prolonged 

 and apparently distressful exertions, the last skin is 

 burst, and the caterpillar emerges in the form of a 

 chrysalis. The chrysalis lies to ail appearance dormant 

 until the time for the animal's final change, when, in its 



