The Life of an Insect: being a history of the changes of insects from the egg to the perfect being.
Science
The Life of an Insect: being a history of the changes of insects from the egg to the perfect being.
Insects
A very natural difficulty will arise in the mind as to what possible
means of escape can be granted to such insects as live in the pupa
state in the interior of old trunks of trees, or even in little caves
of the earth. These cases have all been satisfactorily provided for,
puzzling as they may seem. Take, for instance, the pupa of the great
goat-moth, the _Cossus ligniperda_, of which we give a representation
here. This creature lies buried in a deep excavation, formerly made by
itself when in the larva form, inside the trunk of a willow. How is
it to get back to the hole at which it entered? Without legs, without
any other apparatus by which it might drag itself forward, one would
say it is in a hopeless case; it must lie there and perish, for there
appears no way of extricating it from its den. But not so. Helpless as
it appears, it will certainly make its way out, and taste the sweets
of liberty, and be wafted along the fields of air. But how? Let us
suppose a man in such a condition; let his feet be bandaged together,
so that they cannot move; let a strait-jacket be put upon his body, and
secure his arms and hands; after this, let a leathern bag be put over
his head, and tied down round his middle; then put him in a cellar,
and bid him work his way out and up the stairs until he reached the
front door, where he must undo his bandages, and slip himself out of
his strait-jacket and hood; after which, he may go wherever he likes.
What a feeling of despair would fill the poor prisoner's mind, promised
his release on condition that he should accomplish it in that way! To
him it would be a task altogether impossible, even though his life were
offered as the reward of his success. It is not less a question of life
and death to the insect than it might be to him; yet its extrication is
accomplished, not only in a very simple, but in a very easy manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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