58 FISHING GOSSIP, 



ture connected with the last change of the May-fly 

 tribe, unparalleled in the history of any other insect, 

 that compels a kind of recapitulation of insect phases, 

 before it can either be properly explained or under- 

 stood. Take a butterfly, then, for instance, and we 

 first find the insect in the form of an egg. This, when 

 hatched into life, becomes a caterpillar, scientifically 

 termed larva, from a Latin word signifying a mask ; 

 Linnaeus, the bestower of the name, knowing that in 

 the crawling caterpillar were masked or concealed 

 the full-winged glories of the future butterfly. In 

 this state the insect remains a longer or shorter time, 

 till at last, ceasing to eat or move, it fixes itself in 

 some obscure corner. A kind of skin then spreads 

 over its body, enclosing it like a mummy, or as babies 

 used to be swaddled in folds of cloth ; from which 

 circumstance it is now called pupa, from a Latin word 

 signifying an infant. Some pupae, having a golden 

 colour, were anciently termed chrysalides, from a 

 Greek word having a similar signification ; and thus 

 it is that the pupa of a lepidopterous or butterfly 

 insect, whatever its colour may be, is most generally 

 termed a chrysalis in England at the present period. 

 After remaining in the chrysalis or pupa state for a 

 certain time, the enclosed creature, becoming mature 

 in all its parts, bursts its swaddling bands, and shows 

 itself to the light of day a complete winged insect in 

 its ultimate state of perfection ; this last is called its 



