68 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



THE LARVA OP INSECTS. 



From the egg comes the Jarva, also called grub, maggot, 

 caterpillar, and very erroneously worm. These are worm- 

 shaped (Fig. 12), usually have strong jaws, simple eyes, and 

 the body plainly marked into ring divisions. Often as in case 

 Fig. 12. 



Larva of Bee. 

 of some grubs, larval bees and maggots, there are no legs. In 

 most grubs there are six legs, two to each of the three rings 

 succeeding the head. Besides these, caterpillars have usually 

 ten prop-legs farther back on the body, though a few — ^the 

 loopers or measuring caterpillars — ^have only four or six, 

 while the larvae of the saw-flies have from twelve to sixteen 

 of the false or prop-legs. The alimentary canal of larval 

 insects is usually short, direct and quite simple, while the 

 sex-organs are slightly if at all developed. The larvse of 

 insects are voracious eaters — indeed, their only work seems 

 to be to~eat and grow fat. As the entire growth occurs at 

 this stage, their gormandizing habits are the more excusable. 

 I have often been astonished at the amount of food that the 

 insects in my breeding cases would consume. The length of 

 time which insects remain as laiTae is very variable. The 

 maggot revels in decaying meat but two or three days ; the 

 larval bee eats its rich pabulum for nearly a week ; the apple- 

 tree borer gnaws away for three years ; while the seventeen- 

 year cicada remains a larva for more than sixteen years, 

 groping in darkness, and feeding on roots, only to come forth 

 for a few days of hilarity, sunshine, and courtship. Surely, 

 here is patience exceeding even that of Swammerdam. The 

 name larva, meaning masked, was given to this stage by 

 Linnaeus, as the mature form of the insect is hidden, and 

 cannot be even divined by the unlearned. 



THE PUPA OF insects. 



In this stage the insect is in profound repose, as if resting 

 after its long meal, the better to enjoy its active, sportive 



