64 METAMORPHOSES, 



egg, they are soft, without wings, and in shape usually 

 somewhat like worms. This Linne called the larva 

 state, and an insect when in it a larva, adopting a Latin 

 word signifying a mask, because he considered the real 

 insect while under this form to be as it were masked. 

 In the English lano-uaffe we have no common term that 

 applies to die second state of all insects, though we 

 have several for that of different tribes. Thus we call 

 the coloured and often hairy larvae of butterflies and 

 moths caterpillars ,• the white and more compact larvae 

 of flies, many beetles, &c. grubs or maggots* ; and the 

 depressed larvae of many other insects worms. The 

 two former terms I shall sometimes use in a similar 

 sense, rejecting the last, which ought to be confined to 

 true vermes j but I shall more commonly adopt Linne's 

 term, and call insects in their second state, larva; h . 



In this period of their life, during which they eat 

 voraciously and cast their skin several times, insects 

 live a shorter or longer period, some only a few days 

 or weeks, others several months or years. They then 

 cease eating; fix themselves in a secure place; their 

 skin separates once more and discloses an oblong body, 

 and they have now attained the third state of their 

 existence. 



From the swathed appearance of most insects in this 



a Ge7itils, or gentles, is a synonymous word employed by our old 

 authors, but is now obsolete, except with anglers. Thus Tasser, in 

 a passage pointed out to me by Sir Joseph Banks : — 



" Rewerd not thy sheep when ye take ofFhis cote 



With twitches and patches as brode as a grote; 



Let not such ungentlenesse happen to thine 



Least flie with her gentils do make it to pine." 



b For different kinds of larvae, see Plates XVII, XVIIL XIX. 



