Transcriber's Note Italicized text is represented as _Text_. THE LIFE OF AN INSECT; BEING A HISTORY OF THE CHANGES OF INSECTS FROM THE EGG TO THE PERFECT BEING. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, AND 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. LONDON: R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. CONTENTS. PART I.--THE EGG. PAGE Chapter I.--_The Nest._--The Microscope and Telescope--Terror caused by Insects--Death-watch--Life-boat of Eggs--The Water Beetle--Floating Ark of Eggs--The Gnat--her difficulties--her Egg-raft--The Sand-boring Wasp--Towers of rubbish--Captive Caterpillars--Wood-boring Bee--An Insect Nursery--Escape of the young--Tapestry Bee--A Nest lined with Poppy-flower Petals--Enchanted Leaf-tubes--The spell broken--The Insect Sorcerer--Nest of Down made by a Moth--The Lackey Moth--The Ichneumons--Their usefulness 1 Chapter II.--_Structure and contents of the Egg._--Its Shape--Remarkable mistake about an Insect--The Lace-wing Fly--Eggs carved on their surface--Colours of Eggs--Changes of Colour--Eggs of the Garden Spider--Pretty Nests--Anatomy of the Egg--Contents of the Egg 43 Chapter III.--_Life begins in the Egg._--Spring Time--Influence of Heat and Cold--Eggs resist great Cold--The time of Hatching--Escape of the new Creature--Connexion between Plants and Insects--Changes in the Egg--A Spider's Mother's love--Experiment with two Spiders--Anecdote of an Earwig--Enormous number of Eggs of different Insects 57 PART II.--THE LARVA. Chapter I.--_The Young Larva._--Affection of a Field-Bug--An Earwig Mother--Anecdote of a Spider--Ant-Nurses--Varieties of Larvæ--The Larva born--Forms of Larvæ--Larvæ of Butterflies--Structure of a Larva 79