g GENERAL CONSIDERATlO.Vv 



its body. The habitation of the pupa is usually called its cocoon ; which term, however, is 

 more oommonlj applied t<> those silken eases w envelopes of which I have been .-peaking. 



and of whieh we have an example in the silkworm. This is so closely woven that it ex- 

 clude- water. ami i- often stiffened bya glutinous matter, by whieh it pres rves its original 

 form even alter the perfect animal has escaped : it is also farther strengthened by leaves 

 and pieces of wood, whieh undoubted!] Berve as a better protection from its enemies. 

 Thus this helpless state is guarded and protected bya system of means which are calculate d 



• core the existence <>t' the animal in its utterly helpless state ; a state whieh simulates 

 death, and which, in its ultimate triumph, resembles the resurrection of the bodj from the 

 grave of real death. 



All insects do not undergo the same changes ; neither are they alike in analogous states. 

 Thus the caterpillar of our butterflies wrap- itself in its mantle, where it silently uncb r- 



- it- change ; but the grasshopper comes from the egg an immature insect, but with the 

 general form of the perfect animal, and hop- about with the rudiments of wing- upon its 

 l>aek. As it grows rapidly, it outgrows it- skin, whieh it frequently casts, like the larva of 

 the butterfly : its wings continue to grow, and the body to increase ; the partial wings 

 keep pace with these changes, till at last they are perfected, and the animal has reached 

 its: perfect state without having lost its activity during its period of growth. The grass- 

 hopper] then, never passes into the inactive pupa state : and in this it; metamorphosis is 

 similar to bugs, and dissimilar to beetles and caterpillars. 



There is another difference in the history of insect life, which is interesting : it is not 

 the inhabitant >A' the same medium through life. It may begin it- career in the water, and 

 end it in the air : the musquito is an example. Who has not observed the wiggler in 

 stasrnant water, and in <>ur cistern- '. It i- the mu-quito enjoying it- water-life to the full. 

 When the time arrive- for its change, it ri-es to the surface, hursts its mantle, thrusts up 

 its head and spread- its wings, while with its feet it rests still upon its castn iff mantle, then 

 rises buiyant from its sinking bark, and flies away in triumph from the element which 

 gave it birth. 



Equally remarkable are the appetites of the insect in its larva and in its perfect state. 

 Thus the larva, or, a< it i- usually called, the maggot, sports and feeds upon the putrid 

 mass ; but the fly, which springs from it- mantle, seeks the honey of OUT table : so various 

 are the forms and manners of insecl life The caterpillar, grub and maggot go through the 

 three stages, or undergo a complete metamorphosis : passing through the three periods 

 which are known as the caterpillar, pupa, and imago or perfect stage. The last is the only 

 period which is given them to continue tin ir kind and generations : in many it is transient 

 as the fleeting day, and seems designed only for fulfilling the law of increase ; which, when 

 fulfilled, the insect dies. 



