INSECTS IN THEIR PERFECT STATE. 123 



the larvae of Beetles are scarcely, if ever, handsome, 

 and the interesting chrysalis is only represented by 

 a kind of earthy cocoon, though the nymph or pupa 

 within is sometimes covered with a cuticle destined 

 to he shed, like the horny husk of the chrysalis that 

 encloses the Butterfly during its pupa stage. 



On first issuing from the chrysalis, insects are 

 seldom, if ever, of the colour they are destined to 

 assume afterwards. Bees and Elies, for instance, 

 are at first nearly white, hut very soon, under the 

 action of the atmospheric air, they assume the dif- 

 ferent colours which respectively distinguish them. 

 In Dragon-flies, the length of time required for the 

 eventual colouring to develop itself is especially re- 

 markable.* In Butterflies and Moths, however, the 

 markings assume a certain degree of intensity almost 

 immediately, — long before the wings have ex- 

 panded to tbeir full extent, in their miraculously 

 rapid growth. The Privet Hawk-moth, for instance, 

 begins to exhibit all the intricate markings of its 

 wings in their proper colours, though not of their 

 full brightness, before they have yet attained 

 a fourth of their full size ; and the appearance of 

 the complete design of the full-grown wing, on 

 this reduced scale, is extremely beautiful and inter 

 * See Chapter XI., on the Neuropfera. 



