143 



ARTHROPUDS; INSECTS. 



nor takes food. After remaining awhile in this state, 

 the skin bursts open, and there comes forth a Butterfly 

 or a Moth, whose wings expand, and harden, and are 

 soon able to bear it away in search of flowers, upon 

 whose honey it feeds. In its first state it is called a 

 larva, — a word which means a mask. — because its 

 future form is masked or concealed; in the second 

 state it is called a pupa, — a word meaning infant, — 

 from a slight resemblance that some insects in this 

 state bear to an infant clothed with bandages, accord- 

 ing to a custom among the Romans ; and it is also 

 often called a chrysalis, from a Greek word which 

 means gold, because some of the pupa; are adorned 

 with golden spots ; in the third state it is called a per- 

 fect insect, or iinas:0, from a word which means iinaze, 

 because the image concealed in the skin of the pupa 

 forth. These different states are plainly 

 page 141. Some caterpillars spin a silken 

 covering, which is called a cocoon, 

 from a word which means a shell; 

 all the silk of the world comes 

 from the cocoons of these little 

 creatures. Insects ^\■hich pass 

 through the changes just de- 

 scribed are said to undergo a complete transforma- 

 tion ; but there are some insects which do not change 

 their form so completely. Grasshoppers, for instance, 

 are active during their whole li\'es, never passing 

 through an inactive pupa state. When hatched from 

 the egg they ha\'c legs, but no wings ; later their wings 

 begin to grow, and, at length, having shed their skin 

 several times, each time appearing with longer legs and 

 more perfect wings, they reach their full growth, shed 



has come 

 shown on 



