142 THE UNIVERSE. 



— an ingenious reminder that this worm is only a kind of 

 prehminary disguise beneath which it hides its brilliant 

 livery. 



This first period of life is given up entii^ely to develop- 

 ment; the larva does nothing but eat and grow. But at a 

 given time its activity ceases, it shrivels up, casts off its 

 skin, takes on a new form, and becomes motionless. It is 

 then that the name of nymph is given to it. It is a true 

 transitory state, and in this kind of temporary sepulchre 

 the unfinished existence of the caterpillar is annihilated, 

 and that of the perfect insect begins. 



The transfiguration is as complete at the base as at the 

 surface. At a certain time the whole organism seems re- 

 solved into a homogeneous paste, from Avhich springs the 

 new living being. Generally the nymph is only covered 

 with a brown winding-sheet of the most modest kind, it 

 looks like an immoval)le mummy enveloj^ed in bandages, 

 but sometimes, in imitation of monarchs, it carves out for 

 itself a sarcophagus enriched with gold, and from this is 

 derived the name of chrysalis which is given to it. 



At the decisive, final moment, the dawn of a new life, 

 the mummy swathed like Diana of Ephesus, awakes from 

 its torpor, becomes full of life, rends its lowly covering, 

 and appears under the form of an insect all glittering with 

 emeralds and sapphires. It is in this last epoch of or- 

 ganization that it is called the perfect insect, the imago, 

 as Linnteus named it in his figurative language. 



The birth of the young creature is truly marvellous, for 

 in spite of the unheard-of eftbrts demanded by the act, it 

 issues from its swaddling-clothes in a state of inconceivable 

 freshness. 



The slightest graze rubs off the scales of the butterfly, 



