112 STATES OF INSECTS. 



semble a piece of crystal, and scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the water in which it lives a . 



ii. Parts. The body of each larva consists of the head, 

 including its different organs, and of the succeeding seg- 

 ments, of which the three first may usually be denomi- 

 nated the trunk, and have the six anterior feet, when 

 present, attached to their under side : the remainder is 

 the abdomen. The latter includes in some species a vari- 

 able number of membranous feet, as well as various ap- 

 pendages affixed usually to its tail and sides. No larva 

 is ever furnished with wings b . Each of these greater 

 divisions, and the organs which they include, require 

 separate consideration. 



1. Head. This, as was lately observed, is exteriorly of 

 a horny substance, or at least harder than the rest of the 

 body, in most larvae ; and on this account, though rarely 

 separated from it by any visible distinct neck c , is, if the 



a Reaum. v. 40. t. xi.f. 4 — 15. 



b Midler, the Danish zoologist, relates, that he once met with a 

 papilio which, with the true wings of the genus, had a head without 

 antennae or tongue, furnished with mandibles; and, in short, that of a 

 true caterpillar. It was a female, which deposited eggs that proved 

 barren. If this solitary instance was not a mistake, is it possible that 

 some parasitic larva had devoured only the inclosed head of the but- 

 terfly, or so injured it that it could not reject the hard skin of the 

 larva, and yet not be destroyed ? 



c The only larva? which have a visible distinct neck are those of 

 some Dytisci, Staphylini, and a few others, in which this part is quite- 

 distinct : proving the erroneousness of the opinion of those German 

 entomologists, who consider the thorax as analogous to the neck of 

 other animals, and hence call it Halsschttd. In some lepidopterous 

 larva?, however, as in that of Pieris Brassicce, though no visible neck 

 presents itself, one is very perceptible when the insect stretches the 

 head forward considerably. Reaum. i, 460. 



