110 STATES OF INSECTS. 



orders, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, 

 the majority of the Neuroptera, Coccus and Aleyrodes in 

 Hemiptera, and the genus Pulex in Aptera, — I shall ad- 

 vert to their characters, under several distinct heads; and 

 to avoid unnecessary circumlocution, I shall in what fol- 

 lows wholly leave out of consideration the Jirst division 

 already explained, and use the term larva with reference 

 only to those of the second. The heads under which I 

 propose to treat of them are : The substance of their body, 

 its parts, shape, or figure, clothing, colour. Also the 

 Economy or mode of life of these creatures : their food, 

 moultings, growth, age, sex, and their preparations for as- 

 suming the Pupa?. 



i. Substance, with the exception of the head and six 

 fore-feet, which are usually corneous, the exterior inte- 

 gument or skin of larvae is commonly of a membranous 

 texture, and the body is of a much softer consistence 

 than in the perfect insect. In those, however, of some 

 Staphylinida? and other Coleoptera, the dorsal part of 

 the three first pieces, which represent the trunk of the 

 perfect insect, is hard and horny. Some also have their 

 whole skin coriaceous, as the tortoise-shell butterfly 

 ( Vanessa polychloros) ; and some few, as the wire-worm 

 (Elater segetum), and other Elateres, very hard. I pos- 

 sess a very remarkable larva from Brazil, from the ex- 

 treme flatness of its body, and from its having cavities to 

 receive its legs when unemployed, probably living under 

 bark, the skin of which is still harder than that of the 

 grub of the Elaters. Perhaps it has to resist great 

 pressure ; and on that account is gifted with this quality, 

 so seldom to be met with in other kinds of larva?. The 



