232 INSECTS. 



40,000 to 50,000. But all these are left far behind by a spe- 

 cies of the white ant ( Termes fatale), the female of which de- 

 posits not less than sixty ova in a minute, 3600 in a hour, or 

 86,4000 in a day. 



The most remarkable feature in the history of insects is the 

 transformations the same individuals undergo during the differ- 

 ent stages of their existence. These transformations, more won- 

 derful than the fabled metamorphoses of the Pagan mythology, 

 have been often adduced in proof of the argument for the ex- 

 istence of design in the conduct of the universe. But to the stu- 

 dent of nature even this instance, however striking, is not want- 

 ed to establish proofs of design the most admirable, and bene- 

 ficence the most unbounded, in the structure and preservation of 

 the almost infinitely numerous tribes of organized beings ; since 

 every portion of nature exhibits facts of the same kind, impossi- 

 ble to be explained without reference to Infinite Wisdom and 

 Almighty Power. 



Though there be reason to suspect that a few of the ancient 

 writers had a vague idea of some of these transformations, and 

 that the breeding of the silk-worm must have led many by ana- 

 logous reasoning to conceive similar transformations in other spe- 

 cies ; yet the general knowledge of the metamorphoses of insects 

 cannot be dated farther back than the eighteenth century, when 

 they were placed beyond doubt by the experiments of Swam- 

 merdam. Willughby, Lyonnet, Reaumur, De Geer and others, 

 followed up the discovery by subsequent investigations ; and the 

 old idea, that the animal in each of its states was a different 

 being, was for ever exploded. 



The transformations or metamorphoses of insects embrace three 

 states in which the animals appear, and which form as many 

 great periods of their life. In the first they have no wings, and 

 some even possess no organ of movement ; in the second the 

 animal falls into a state of torpor or apparent lethargy, for a 

 longer or shorter period, during which its future organs are com- 

 pleted ; and the third displays the perfect insect in the full 

 possession of all its members and animal faculties. 



In the first state, the animal, under the form of a small worm, 

 is termed the larva, or caterpillar. These larvae appear in two 

 states : 1. Those which in general form more or less resemble the 

 perfect insect ; 2. Those which are wholly unlike the perfect in sect. 

 The first of these includes, with the exception of the Crustacea, 



