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 ; 
Linnzus, 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 pups, 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 
