38 Proceedings of the 



from the egg, to be " uninteruptedly metamorphosed" from 

 the larva in the egg; and other passages and expressions, 

 when speaking of the emerged insect before it acquires wings, 

 show sufficiently that he looks upon that state as the pupa or 

 nymph state. For instance, he says, " The active pupa of 

 Orthoptera and Hemiptera are called ' nymphs.' " Again, 

 speaking of the moulting of these so-called pupa or nymphs, 

 he says : " When this active pupa or nymph again moults, the 

 insect attains its perfect condition." And afterwards he adds : 

 " Here then we see that the pupa stage, which in the butterfly 

 was passive and embryonic, in the locust, is active and vora- 

 cious ; whilst their respective conditions in the larval state are 

 reversed. The whole period of the life of the Orthopterous 

 insect," he goes on, " from exclusion to flight, may, if its orga- 

 nization during that period be contrasted with that of the Le- 

 pidopterous or Coleopterous insects, be called an active nymph- 

 hood."* 



The extracts which I have given on the authority of Profes- 

 sor Owen, are quoted from the last edition of his Lectures on 

 the Comparative Anatomy of Invertebrate Animals, published 

 in May 1855 ; and I am taking it for granted, that we may 

 assume them to contain the latest recognised views of physio- 

 logists on the subject. We see, then, that the present opinion 

 is, that the orthopterans pass the larval phase of their exist- 

 ence in the egg, — that they pass their pupa state in an active 

 six-legged, but unwinged form, after coming out of the egg, — 

 and that the perfect insect is only seen when the wings are 

 developed. 



Now, the proposition which I venture to submit after care- 

 ful consideration of what I have observed of this leaf-insect, 

 is, that both the larval and chrysalid states are passed in the 

 egg, and that what has been called the homomorphous larva 

 or the active pupa, is merely a phase of the perfect in- 

 sect. The analogy on which I have just remarked speaks 

 strongly in behalf of this view. The examination of the 

 capsule found in the egg confirms it. This capsule has 

 a distinct determinate form. It is covered with a pellucid 

 membrane of its own, as can be seen in another specimen where 



* Owen's Comp. Anat., p. 436. 



