/A-SECT TRANSFORMATION. 



31 



ZOOLOGY. 



INSECT TRANSFORMATION. 



MRS. JULIA P. BALLARD. 



J^ig- S- 



To those who have made insect lives a study, there is a certain fascination in 

 watching the changes from egg to larva, from larva to pupa or chrysalis, and from 

 chrysalis to imago, or perfect insect, which can be understood only by the lover of 

 entomology. 



The egg itself is a study. From the egg, with very few exceptions (such as 

 some of the Aphides and Diptera), all insects originate. The 

 eggs of insects vary in size, shape and color. Many of them 

 are plain and smooth, and under the microscope show no 

 greater beauty of finish than to the naked eye. Some are 

 .fluted, or grooved from a central ring, looking not unlike a 

 fairy carriage wheel carved from pearl. Some are white, 

 some yellow, and some a delicate green. Others, like those 

 of the Danais Archippus butterfly, are conical and marked off" 

 in vertical lines, intersected with divisions giving them a bas- 

 ket-like appearance (Insect Lives, Fig. 5) ; and others still 

 are biscuit- shaped and knobbed. 



But more wonderful than the egg itself, is the fact that the different kinds of 

 eggs are laid upon that plant, or in that locality, where the young, when hatched, 

 will find its own particular food, or best be able to live. The Libellula, which flies 

 on gauzy wing in the summer sunshine, always seeks the water to deposit its eggs, 

 as the larva of the dragon fly lives in the water. It is a marvelous instinct which 

 leads the Imago to remember that the element in which it sports will not support 

 the life that first issues from its egg. 



The first life, from the egg, is either in the form of larva, caterpillar or mag- 

 got. It may be more or less cylindrical, sometimes appearing to be without head 

 or feet; or oftener having six feet. Those which have six feet are called larvse ; 

 those without distinct head and feet, maggots, and those with six true feet and 

 several membranous false legs, or '' pro-legs," are caterpillars. The head of the 

 caterpillar is the first of the thirteen segments into which the caterpillar is divided. 

 The true legs are affixed to the next three segments. The pro-legs are short and 

 muscular, larger than the true lees, and do not appear in the perfect insect. 



The caterpillar, after changing its skin from three to five times, at length 

 throws it off and assumes the pupa form. The larva varies as much in shape and color 

 as does the egg — somebeing dull and without beauty, others, as that of the Danais 

 (Fig. 7), handsome in shape, of a bright color, and ornamented with gold. Some 



