160 TRANSFORMATION OF ANIMALS. 



their mouth, or any of their members ; for they are all im- 

 prisoned by coverings more or less strong. No cares occupy 

 their attention. Deprived of the faculty of motion, they re- 

 main fixed in those situations which they have chosen for 

 their temporary abode, or where chance has placed them, till 

 their final metamorphosis into flies. Some of them, however, 

 are capable of changing place ; but their movements are 

 slow and painful. Their blood circulates, but in a contrary 

 .direction from what took place in the caterpillar state; for 

 it proceeds from the head toward the tail. Respiration con- 

 tinues to go on, but the organs are differently situated. In 

 the caterpillar, the principal organs of respiration were placed 

 at the posterior part of the body ; but now these same organs 

 are to be found at the anteridr part of the animal. In the 

 third period, the insect has acquired that perfect organization 

 which corresponds to the rank it is to hold in the scale of 

 animation. The bonds of the nymph, or of the chrysalis, are 

 now burst asunder, and the insect commences a new mode of 

 existence. All its members, formerly soft, inactive, and folded 

 up in an envelope, are expanded, strengthened, and exposed 

 to observation. Under the form of a worm or caterpillar, it 

 crawled ; under that of a nymph or chrysalis, its power of 

 motion was almost annihilated ; under the last form, it is fur- 

 nished with six springy legs, and two or four wings, with 

 which it is enabled to fly through the air. Instead of teeth or 

 pincers, with which it divided a gross aliment, it has now a 

 trunk, by which it extracts the refined juices of the most, del- 

 icate flowers. Instead of a few smooth eyes, which it possessed 

 in the worm and caterpillar state, the new insect is furnished 

 with both smooth and convex eyes, to the number of several 

 thousands. 



The internal parts of the insect have likewise undergone as 

 many changes as the external. The texture, the proportions, 

 and the number of the viscera, are greatly altered. Some 

 have acquired an additional degree of consistence ; others, on 

 the contrary, are rendered finer and more delicate. Some 

 receive a new form, and others are entirely annihilated. Lastly, 

 some organs in the perfect insect, which seemed formerly 

 to have no existence, are unfolded, and become visible. 



We shall now give some examples of transformation which 

 deviate from the common mode. 



Some insects hold a middle rank between those which pre- 

 serve their original figure during life, and those that suffer 

 transformations. Their existence is divided into two periods 



