98 GROWTH OF INSECTS. 



may have suffered, from which an individual butterfly 

 originated. It is only during the caterpillar state 

 that the insect eats voraciously, and grows in propor- 

 tion ; and if it is, during this stage of its existence, 

 thrown upon short allowance, it cannot acquire the 

 standard magnitude, and the butterfly will be dwarfed 

 from the first. The same remarks with respect to 

 growth, apply to insects of every kind ; and the fact 

 cannot be better exemplified than in the uniformity 

 of the house-fly, among which scarcely an individual 

 in a thousand, will be found to differ a hair's breadth 

 in dimensions from its fellows. The smaller flies that 

 sometimes mingle with the common house-fly, are 

 those that come from the maggots in cheese. 



Few insects, after arriving at the adult state, live 

 more than a few days, or at most a few weeks : some 

 live for a few months, but this is an exception to the 

 general rule. 



