i 4 4 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



remains in this state throughout the winter, but 

 with the return of spring it again casts its skin 

 and reverts in appearance to the second stage 

 of its varied existence. It no longer eats, 

 however, and after a short time changes into a 

 true pupa; then, after resting in this condition 

 for about a month, it at last issues forth as a 

 small, winged beetle, the whole process of its 

 complicated transformation occupying two years. 

 The Cantharidae also undergo hyper-meta- 

 morphosis, but are generally parasitic on the 

 eggs of grasshoppers and locusts. The insect 

 at first is a thin, six-footed larva with a powerful 

 pair of jaws, long legs, and a horny skin. The 

 larvae are extremely active, and run hunting 

 about until they find an egg-pod containing 

 grasshoppers' eggs. Directly a prize is found 

 they rush upon it, and a furious fight takes 

 place, each larva striving to get complete pos- 

 session of the precious pod ; some of the larvae 

 generally get killed in the melee and the victors 

 then gnaw their way through the shell of the 

 pod and greedily devour the eggs. After feasting 

 for about eight days the larva is full fed ; it then 

 casts its skin and appears as a soft, fat, white 

 grub with short legs. Twice again the larva 

 casts its skin at intervals of first a week and then 

 a few days ; after each moult the insect becomes 

 fatter and its legs more rudimentary until, after 

 the third time, it is a very fat, soft, legless grub. 

 During all these changes it has fed continuously 

 upon the eggs, but about a week after the final 

 moult its appetite fails, and it buries itself in 

 the soil and hybernates until the following spring 



