INSECTS 



production of offspring. The adult insect is necessarily 

 the reproductive stage, but in most cases it must support 

 itself as well; the immature insect has no other direct 

 object in lite than that of feeding and ot preparing itself 

 for its transformation into the adult. The feeding func- 

 tion, however, as we have seen in Chapter IV, involves 



Fig. 133. Wasps, or yellow jackets 



A, an adult male of Vespula maculata. 



B, C, D, larva, pupa, and adult worker of 

 Vespula maculifrons. The worker is a non- 

 reproductive female and uses her oviposi- 

 tor as a sting 



B 



D 



most of the activities and structures of the animal, in- 

 cluding its adaptation to its environment, its modes of 

 locomotion, its devices tor avoiding enemies, its means of 

 obtaining food. Hence, in studying any young insect, we 

 must understand that we are dealing almost exclusively 

 with characters that are adaptive to the feeding function. 

 When we observe the life ot any caterpillar we soon 

 realize that its principal business is that ot eating. The 

 caterpillar is one creature, at least, that may openly pro- 

 claim it lives to eat. Whatever else it does, except acts 



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