14 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



The caterpillars of the butterflies and moths are often 

 beautifully marked, and have for the most part a pair of 

 articulated feet on each of the three segments behind the 

 head, and pairs of fleshy appendages called sucker-feet on 

 some of the other segments, and at the end of the tail, not 

 exceeding sixteen in all. These " sucker-feet" enable 

 the caterpillars to hold firmly to the twigs they frequent. 

 Proceeding onwards still by number of feet, the cater- 

 pillars of the sawflies will be found in many cases to have, 

 besides the three pairs of true feet, five, six, or seven pairs 

 of sucker-feet, and also the pair at the end of the tail 

 (known as the caudal proleg). In some cases (as with 

 grasshoppers, aphides, or green-fly, plant-bugs, &c.) the 

 young in the first stage whether produced alive or 

 hatched from the egg much resembles the parent, that is, 

 has a distinct shape of head, with horns, trunk, or thorax, 

 furnished with six legs, and abdomen, and differs mainly 

 in size and in being wingless ; but, whether in this shape, 

 or what is known as grub, maggot, or caterpillar, or what- 

 ever kind of insect it may belong to in this first stage, it 

 is scientifically a larva. 



In this larval stage the insect feeds voraciously and 

 often grows fast, the skin does not expand beyond cer- 

 tain limits, and when this point is arrived at, the larva 

 ceases feeding for a while, the skin loosens, cracks, and 

 is cast off by the creature inside, which comes out in a 

 fresh coat, sometimes like the previous one, sometimes 

 of a different colour or differently marked. This 

 operation is known as moulting, and occurs from time 

 to time till the larva has reached its full growth. The 

 duration of life in the first or larval state is various ; in 

 some instances it only extends over a week or two; in 

 some it lasts for a period of three, four, or five years. As 

 far as observations go at present that is to say, with such 

 kinds as have at present been observed larvae are not 

 injured by an amount of cold much beyond what they are 

 commonly called on to bear in this country (England) ; 

 but they are liable to injury from over supply of moisture, 

 whether from sudden rain in warm weather, or from full 



