Our Common Insects: A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and HousesPackard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Science
Our Common Insects: A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and Houses
Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Insects
That the cylindrical form of the bee grub and caterpillar is the result
of modification through descent is evident in the caterpillar-like form
of the immature Caddis fly (Pl. 3, fig. 2). Here the fundamental
characters of the larva are those of the Corydalus and Sialis and
Panorpa, types of closely allied groups. The features that remind us of
caterpillars are superadded, evidently the result of the peculiar
tube-inhabiting habits of the young Caddis fly. In like manner the
caterpillar-form is probably the result of the leaf-eating life of a
primitive Leptiform larva. In like manner the soft-bodied maggot of the
weevil is evidently the result of its living habitually in cavities in
nuts and fruits. Did the soft, baggy female Stylops live exposed, like
its allies in other families, to an out-of-doors life, its skin would
inevitably become hard and chitinous. In these and multitudes of other
cases the adaptation of the form of the insect to its mode of life is
one of cause and effect, and not a bit less wonderful after we know what
induced the change of form.
Having endeavored to show that the caterpillar is a later production
than the young, wingless cockroach, with which geological facts
harmonize, we have next to account for the origin of a metamorphosis in
insects. Here it is necessary to disabuse the reader's mind of the
prevalent belief that the terms larva, pupa and imago are fixed and
absolute. If we examine at a certain season the nest of a humble bee, we
shall find the occupants in every stage of growth from the egg to the
pupa, and even to the perfectly formed bee ready to break out of its
larval cell. So slight are the differences between the different stages
that it is difficult to say where the larval stage ends and the pupa
begins, so also where the pupal state ends and the imago begins. The
following figures (205-208) will show four of the most characteristic
stages of growth, but it should be remembered that there are
intermediate stages between. Now we have noticed similar stages in the
growth of a moth, though a portion of them are concealed beneath the
hard, dense chrysalis skin. The external differences between the larval
and pupal states are fixed for a large part of the year in most
butterflies and moths, though even in this respect there is every
possible variation, some moths or butterflies passing through their
transformations in a few weeks, others requiring several months, while
still others take a year, the majority of the moths living under ground
in the pupa state for eight or nine months. The stages of metamorphosis
in the Diptera are no more suddenly acquired than in the bee or
butterfly. In all these insects the rudiments of the wings, legs, and
even of the ovipositor of the adult exist in the young larva. We have
found somewhat similar intermediate stages in the metamorphoses of the
beetles. The insects we have mentioned are those with a "complete
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