The answers to both these questions can easily be given from our
present standpoint. As far as the first question is concerned, this
finds its solution in the fact that the form-divergence always
corresponds exactly with the divergence of function, _i.e._ with the
divergence in the mode of life.
If we compare a butterfly with a moth there can be no doubt that the
difference in the conditions of life is far greater on the side of the
imagines than on that of the larvæ. The differences in the mode of life
of the larvæ are on the whole but very small. They are all vegetable
feeders, requiring large quantities of food, and can only cease
feeding during a short time, for which reason they never leave their
food-plants for long, and it is of more importance for them to remain
firmly attached than to be able to run rapidly. It is unnecessary for
them to seek long for their food, as they generally find themselves
amidst an abundance, and upon this depends the small development of
their eyes and other organs of sense. On the whole caterpillars live
under very uniform conditions, although these may vary in manifold
details.
The greatest difference in the mode of life which occurs amongst
Lepidopterous larvæ is shown by wood feeders. But even these, which
by their constant exclusion from light, the hardness of their food,
their confinement within narrow hard-walled galleries, and by the
peculiar kind of movement necessitated by these galleries, are so
differently situated in many particulars to those larvæ which live
openly on plants, have not experienced any general change in the
typical conformation of the body by adaptation to these conditions of
life. These larvæ, which, as has already been mentioned, belong to
the most diverse families, are more or less colourless and flattened,
and have very strong jaws and small feet; but in none of them do we
find a smaller number of segments, or any disappearance, or important
transformation of the typical limbs; they all without exception possess
sixteen legs, like the other larvæ excepting the _Geometræ_.
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