236 INSECTS. 



purpose of reproduction. Immediately upon their exclusion in- 

 sects are generally weak, soft, and languid; and some short 

 space of time is required for the expansion of the members, cal- 

 culated for action in a different situation or in a different me- 

 dium. The elytra assume their brilliant colours; the wings 

 expand to their proper size, and assume their various markings ; 

 and what seemed a few minutes before but an inanimate half- 

 formed mass, is now transformed into an animal decked with the 

 most vivid colours, and rejoicing in its new existence. The 

 operation of expanding their wings in by far the greater number 

 of insects occupies only a few minutes ; in some butterflies half 

 an hour or an hour ; and some species of Sphinx require several 

 hours or even a day for this operation. In certain Tipulce and 

 the Ephemera?, however, this process is almost instantaneous ; 

 and in some species of this last genus the insects, after being re- 

 leased from the puparium, and making use of their expanded 

 wings for flight, undergo a slight and further metamorphosis. 

 They fix themselves by their claws in a vertical position upon 

 some object ; withdraw every part of the body, even the legs 

 and wings, from a thin pellicle which covered them like a glove ; 

 and so perfect is the resemblance of this exuviae to the insect as 

 to be at first sight mistaken for it. 



When the developement of the perfect insect is thus fully 

 completed, it immediately begins to exercise its new powers in 

 their destined functions. It walks, runs, or flies in search of 

 food, or of the other sex of its own species if it be a male, that 

 the great purpose of its existence in this state may be fulfilled, 

 the continuation of the species. And so unerring are its in- 

 tuitive perceptions of the food which is proper, and the pro- 

 tection which it requires, that the new formed being becomes at 

 once a free denizen of the air, distinguishing with more than 

 botanical skill the plants and their juices which are necessary 

 for its wants ; and guided at once to results which in other be- 

 ings are only acquired by the slow lessons of experience or edu- 

 cation. 



The duration of insect life in the imago or perfect animal is 

 subject to some variations, but in general concludes when re- 

 production is perfected. There is not, as in the larger animals, 

 a duration of a medium period, only liable to be shortened by ac- 

 cident or disease ; but a conditional one, dependent on the earlier 



