96 THE TIGER-MOTH. 



After an insect has left the egg, and entered upon 

 the world as an individual being, it has to pass 

 through three stages, which are called larva, pupa, 

 and imago. 



The word " larva," in Latin, signifies " a mask," 

 and this word is used because the insect is at that 

 time "masked," so to speak, under a covering quite 

 different from that which it will finally assume. In 

 the present instance, the Tiger-moth is so effectually 

 masked under the Woolly Bear, that no one who was 

 ignorant of the fact would imagine two creatures so 

 dissimilar to have any connection with each other. 



Throughout this work the word "larva" will be 

 always understood to signify the first of the three 

 states of insect life, whether it be a " caterpillar," a 

 " grub," or a " worm". 



In its next stage the insect becomes a "pupa," 

 which word means a " mummy," or a body wrapped 

 in swaddling clothes. This name is employed be- 

 cause in very many insects the pupa is quite still, is 

 shut up without the power of escape, and looks alto- 

 gether much like a mummy, wrapped round in folds 

 of cloth. In the moths and butterflies the insect in 

 this stage is called a " chrysalis," or " aurelia," both 

 words having the same import, the first Greek and the 

 other Latin, both derivedfrom a word meaning " gold ". 

 Several butterflies — that of the common cabbage 

 butterfly, for example — take a beautiful golden tinge 

 on their pupal garments, and from these individual 



