The winter draws near, and sends its foretokening cold breathings to warn every creature, vegetable and animal, that the dark season is arriving, when food is no longer to be obtained. What is to become of the larva? Can it endure the penetrating tooth of frost, or the overwhelming shower of rain? Or can it endure to be from week to week, from month to month, without a mouthful of food? From the facts already stated with reference to the age of larva, it is very certain that many larvæ have to bear these trials; and some, not merely during one, but during several winters. We must, therefore, inquire how they have been defended, or strengthened, so as to enable them so to do. [Illustration: _Shaggy-coated Larvæ._] The alteration in the coats of animals during winter, or rather, just previous to it, and the fact that animals destined to inhabit the arctic regions are enveloped in coats of the shaggiest hair, are well known to every person. There can be no doubt, that in many instances in the insect world, where a larva has to be exposed to the frosts of winter, the same provision of a hairy covering, which has been given to them by the Creator, is intended to meet the same end, and to preserve their soft and tender bodies from the destructive influence of extreme cold. The following striking observation of a talented entomologist, who has not thought it beneath him to write a most interesting book only on the family of ants (M. Huber), shows very clearly that such is, in fact, the intention of providing the larva with a covering of this kind. He noticed that the larvæ of some species of ants destined to pass through the winter, were furnished with this kind of warm clothing, while those which were not so destined had smooth coats, that is, even in the same species: thus proving to us, beyond a doubt, that as the winter approached, the warm coat was put on by the larvæ. The engraving on the last page represents some extraordinary specimens of hairiness in caterpillars from Brazil, now in the British Museum.