294- MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



very grotesque figure*. Its awkward motions add not a 

 little to the effect of its appearance. When so disposed, 

 it can move as well and as fast as its congeners ; yet this 

 does not usually answer its purpose, which is to assume 

 the appearance of an inanimate substance. It therefore 

 hitches along in the most leisurely manner possible, as 

 if it was counting its steps. Having set one foot for- 

 ward (for it moves only one leg at a time), it stops a lit- 

 tle before it brings up its fellow, and so on with the se- 

 cond and third legs. It moves its antennse in a similar 

 way, striking, as it were, first with one, and then, after 

 an interval of repose, with the other 5 . The pupae of 

 gnats also, as well as those of many other aquatic Di- 

 ptera, retain their locomotive powers, not however the 

 free motion of their limbs. When not engaged in ac- 

 tion, they ascend to the surface by the natural levity of 

 their bodies, and are there suspended by two auriform 

 respiratory organs in the anterior part of the trunk, 

 their abdomen being then folded under the breast; when 

 disposed to descend the animal unfolds it, and by sudden 

 strokes which she gives with it and her anal swimmers 

 to the water, she swims, to the right and left as well as 

 downwards, with as much ease as the larva c . 



Bonnet mentions a pupa which climbs up and down 

 in its cocoon, and that of the common glow-worm 

 (Lampyris noctiluca) will sometimes push itself along by 

 the alternate extension and contraction of the segments 

 of its body d . Others turn round when disturbed. That 

 of a weevil (Hypera Arator) which spins itself a beauti- 

 ful cocoon like fine gauze, and which it fixes to the 



a See above, p. 255. b De Geer, iii. 284. 



c Jbid. vi, 308. ri Ibid. iv. 43. 



