Packard.] 
INSECTS OE THE GARDEN. 
11 
have always agreed with those drawn from the imago, can 
they again be arranged in a natural method by the sole con¬ 
sideration of their chrysalid characters. 
When the insect breaks forth from its chrysalis, we can 
then see how wonderfully complex is the' outer crust that 
gives form to the creature and protects its vital parts. At 
first sight we see the body divided into three portions, to 
which naturalists give the name of head, thorax and abdo¬ 
men, terms borrowed from the anatomy of man himself, and 
to be retained in science only until more appropriate names 
are suggested. It is as if we should take a wormlike, cylin¬ 
drical figure consisting of successive rows of cylinders, and 
should constrict it in two places, thereby dividing the whole 
body into three sections or regions. Of these regions the 
first is the smallest and most unlike the two others in shape, 
and besides organs of special sensation is provided with 
chewing organs, while within is an enlarged pair of nerve 
knots serving as some sort of a brain, though hardly larger 
than those supplying the remainder of the body. This re¬ 
gion constitutes the head. 
Larger than the head, inasmuch as it is to support the 
organs of locomotion, is the middle region or thorax, which 
supports the legs and two pairs of wings ; while the largest 
portion of the body is the bulky abdomen, which retains very 
much of the original wormlike form of the larva, and is the 
seat of the reproductive system. But were the contour of the 
rings that make up these sections of the hard outer crust 
still continuous and unbroken, we should have the poor 
victims enclosed in jackets of the straitest kind. Whence 
comes then all the grace and freedom of action that the but¬ 
terfly and ichneumon-fly possess ? It is in the fact that the 
whole outer crust is subdivided into portions finely hinged 
together by tough membranes, and forming points of attach¬ 
ment to thousands of little muscular fibres within, thus 
giving it a surprising degree of flexibility. Besides these 
11 
