13 



actually enclosing the future wings of the insect. It 

 continues all this time to walk about, and to imbibe, 

 by means of its sharp proboscis, the juices of the plant 

 on which it subsists. In the perfect state it appears 

 with a pair of delicate, filmy wings folded beneath two 

 tough covers, which lie flat upon its back and cross 

 each other at their ends. In this stage it feeds also by 

 suction upon the juices of the squash leaves ; but, 

 with additional organs, it has acquired new propensi- 

 ties, which lead it to provide for the continuation of its 

 species, and, this being accomphshed, it perishes. The 

 transformations of grasshoppers also are incomplete ; 

 young and old, larvae, pupae, and perfect insects being 

 alike active, and partaking a common food. 



The following are instances of complete metamor- 

 phosis. The white grub, which is so often turned up 

 by the plough in fields, hves beneath the surface of 

 the soil, and feeds upon the fibrous roots of the grasses. 

 It afterwards becomes a pupa, exhibiting a form inter- 

 mediate between that of a grub and a beetle ; legs 

 small and useless are visible, a pair of eyes, and two 

 little horns or antennae. For some time it remains at 

 rest in the earth, till, its appointed season having 

 arrived, it bursts the filmy skin that enfolded its body 

 and limbs, digs itself a passage to the surface, and 

 comes forth a chesnut-colored beede,* commonly 

 known here as the dorr-bug. In this, its last and 

 winged state, it devours the leaves of trees, seeks its 

 mate, and deposits its eggs in the ground. The whole 

 generation of dorr-bugs perishes within six weeks after 

 emerging from the earth in the beetle form. 



* Melolontha Quercina. Knock. 



