ON THE 
METAMOEPHOSES OF INSECTS. 
BY 
SIE JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart. F.E.S M.R.I. 
Pres. Ent. Soc. V.P. Lin. Soc. Y.P. Ethn. Soc. F.S.A. 
The subkingdom Annulosa, to which insects belong, is divided into 
five classes, namely, Annelida, Crustacea, Arachnida, Myriapoda, 
Insecta. 
The Annelida, or worms, have a body consisting of more or less 
numerous segments, but without any jointed appendages. 
The Crustacea, or crabs and lobsters, have a jointed body, and each 
segment usually bears a pair of appendages. They are aquatic in 
their habits. 
The Arachnida, or spiders, possess four pairs of legs ; the body is 
divided into two parts, the cephalothorax and abdomen. The seg- 
ments composing the abdomen bear no appendages. Spiders are aerial 
in their habits. 
The Myriapoda, or centipedes, have a long body consisting of 
numerous segments, each of which bears a pair of legs. 
The Insecta, or insects, have three pairs of legs. They are aerial 
in habits, and breathe by means of tracheae or air-tubes, which ramify 
throughout the internal organs. The body is divided into three parts, 
the head, thorax, and abdomen. 
In addition to the three pairs of legs, the thorax bears generally 
either two or four wings. The older naturalists collected the wingless 
forms into a special order — the Aptera ; but more extended observa- 
tions have shown that each of the large orders or groups into which 
insects are divided contain some apterous forms. The female glow- 
worm and the working ants are familiar examples of this. 
But though the presence of wings is the rule, and the division of 
insects into orders is founded in great measure on the characters 
afforded by these important organs, still they are present only in the 
mature state of the animal, and no known insect is born with wings. 
Not only in the absence of wings, but also generally in many other 
important points, the young insect differs from the mature form, and 
