UTILITY OF BIRDS IN NATURE. 



15 



pupal form. This stage it passes without food and while 

 fixed to some object. The pupae or nymphs of some other 

 insects, however, move about freely, as is the case with 

 locusts, grasshoppers, and like insects (Orthoptera). 1 



The pupa finally throws 

 off its outer shell, and 

 emerges a fully developed 

 or perfect insect or imago 

 with wings ; although some 

 insects which, like some 

 birds, have lost the use 

 of their wings, never fly. 2 

 After the union of the sexes 

 the female insect eventually 

 deposits the eggs for the 



Fig. 8. — Pupse or chrysalids. 



next generation. Thus we have four forms which insects 

 assume : (1) the egg, (2) the larva, (3) the pupa or nymph, 

 (4) the imago or perfect winged insect. 



Practically all living animals of appreciable size, as well 

 as most plants that are visible to the unaided eye, furnish 

 food for certain insects. Other insects feed on dead animals, 

 dead trees, or other decaying animal or vegetable matter. 

 A certain larva has been known even to tunnel into marble. 

 Those insects which feed on live vegetation or living animals 

 are capable of doing great harm if they increase unduly; 

 while those that feed only on dead animals or dead and 

 decaying vegetation can do only good in nature, although 

 they may be injurious to man by destroying hides, furs, pre- 

 served meats, or clothing. 



It is difficult to perceive the usefulness of those so-called 

 injurious species which feed on the different parts of plants ; 

 still, the larvse that eat the buds, the caterpillars that feed 



1 In the Orthoptera the transformations are imperfect; the larvse of grass- 

 hoppers, for example, are provided with well-developed legs, and much resemble 

 the imago or perfect insect, hut are without wings. In this stage they are usually 

 called nymphs. As they approach maturity they enter what is virtually an im- 

 perfect pupal stage, but retain their shape, limbs, and activity. They now show 

 rudimentary wings, but it is only at maturity that they are capable of flight. 



2 The Thysanura, or lowest order of insects, including " bristle tails," " spring 

 tails," " fish moths," and the like, never become winged or develop any trace of 

 wings. 



