Second Stage of Insects, 63 



THE LARVA OF INSECTS. 



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

 caterpillar, and very erroneously worm. These are' worm- 

 shaped (Fig. 14), usually have strong jaws, simple eyes, and 

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



Fig 



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 larvse 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 larvse 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 Linnseus, 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 meal, the better to enjoy its active, sportive days — the 



