this portion flying off, the rest adhering to the twig or leaf upon which it has been 

 placed. Many larvae have the habit, as soon as they have emerged from the egg, 

 of making their first meal upon the shell from which they have just escaped. 



CATEitFlLLARS 



The second stage in which the insects we are studying exist is known as the 

 larval stage. When it is reached the insect is spoken of as a larva, or caterpillar 

 (see Plate C, Fig. K). Caterpillars have long, worm-like bodies, w r hich are often 

 thickest about the middle, tapering before and behind, and more or less flattened on 

 the under side. Sometimes caterpillars ctre oval or slug-shaped. Very frequently 

 their bodies are adorned with hairs, spines, and tubercles of various forms. The 

 body of the larva, like the body of the butterfly, consists normally of thirteen rings 

 or segments, of which the three foremost, just behind the head, correspond to the 

 prothorax, the mesothorax, and the metathorax of the perfect insect, while the re- 

 maining nine correspond to the abdomen of the imago. These three anterior seg- 

 ments bear legs, which correspond to the legs of the winged form in their location, 

 and are known as the true legs of the larva. Besides these the caterpillar has about 

 the middle of the body and at its posterior end paired pro-legs, as they are called, 

 which are its principal organs of locomotion in this stage, but which do not reappear 



