126 THE DEVELOPMENT OF INSECTS 



always hold good in the early stages of the insect's 

 life, and we must remember that the creature 

 commences life on leaving the egg, and not merely 

 on its emergence from the chrysalis, so that we 

 have to reckon with caterpillars, grubs and all 

 sorts of curious immature forms in our concep- 

 tions of an insect. 



These early stages do not as a rule interest 

 the public much, but it is well to bear in mind 

 that the " perfect insect " stage is reached by some 

 insects along apparently a very different road 

 from that travelled by others. Some leave the 

 egg as caterpillars or grubs, and after various 

 changes of skin become apparently lifeless 

 chrysalids, from which they emerge as perfect 

 insects. Others leave the egg as diminutive 

 likenesses of their parents, and run or hop about 

 much as they do, attaining the perfect insect 

 stage simply by a series of changes of skin, 

 without any definite quiescent or chrysalis 

 condition. 



The observation, therefore, which one often 

 hears that insects never grow, has to be taken 

 with caution ; all insects grow in their early stages, 

 but it is an obvious truth that insects do not 



