Hypermetamorphosis 



drowsy activity merely by feeble, wormlike 

 movements. 



By dint of these alternate contractions and 

 dilations, indolent though they be, the larva 

 nevertheless contrives to turn right round in 

 the sort of shell with which the pseudo- 

 chrysalidal integuments provide it, when by 

 accident it finds itself placed head down- 

 wards; and this operation is all the more dif- 

 ficult inasmuch as the larva almost exactly 

 fills the cavity of the shell. The creature 

 contracts, bends its head under its belly and 

 slides its front half over its hinder half by 

 wormlike movements so slow that the lens 

 can hardly detect them. In less than a 

 quarter of an hour the larva, at first turned 

 upside down, finds itself again head upper- 

 most. I admire this gymnastic feat, but 

 have some difficulty in understanding it, so 

 small is the space which the larva, when at 

 rest in its cell, leaves unoccupied, compared 

 with that which we should be justified in ex- 

 pecting from the possibility of such a re- 

 versal. The larva does not long enjoy the 

 privilege which enables it to resume inside 

 its cell, when this is moved from its original 

 position, the attitude which it prefers, that 

 is to say, with its head up. 



Two days, at most, after its first appear- 

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