It has long, thin, brown wing-cases, and often flies into rooms at night, attracted by the light which it probably mistakes for that of its mate. The metamorphoses of the Cantharidæ are very remarkable. The larvæ are at first active and hexapod. The Phytophaga are vegetable feeders, both as larvæ and in the perfect state. The larvæ are furnished with legs, and are not unlike the caterpillars of certain Lepidoptera. The larva of Coccinella (the ladybird) is somewhat depressed, of an elongated ovate form, with a small head, and moderately strong legs. It feeds on Aphides. Thus, then, we see that there are among the Coleoptera many different forms of larvæ. Macleay considered that there were five principal types. The pupa of the Coleoptera is quiescent, and “the parts of the future beetle are plainly perceivable, being incased in distinct sheaths; the head is applied against the breast; the antennæ lie along the sides of the thorax; the elytra and wings are short and folded at the sides of the body, meeting on the under side of the abdomen; the two anterior pairs of legs are entirely exposed, but the hind pair are covered by wing-cases, the extremity of the thigh only appearing beyond the sides of the body.”[8] In the next three orders--namely, the Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, walking-stick insects, cockroaches, etc.), Euplexoptera (earwigs), and Thysanoptera, a small group of insects well known to gardeners under the name of Thrips--the larvæ when they quit the egg already much resemble the mature form, differing, in fact, principally in the absence of wings, which are more or less gradually acquired, as the insect increases in size. They are active throughout life. Those specimens which have rudimentary wings are, however, usually called pupæ. The Neuroptera present, perhaps, more differences in the character of their metamorphoses than any other order of insects. Their larvæ are generally active, hexapod little creatures, and do not vary from one another in appearance so much, for instance, as those of the Coleoptera, but their pupæ differ essentially; some groups remaining active throughout life, like the Orthoptera; while a second division have quiescent pupæ, which, however, in some cases, acquire more or less power of locomotion shortly before they assume the mature state; thus that of Raphidia, though motionless at first, at length acquires strength enough to walk, even while still inclosed in the pupa skin, which is very thin.