that frequently, within the limits of the same order or even family,
modifications of type may be found which are suited to various modes of
life adopted by different insects. A survey of the multitudes of insect
larvae--grubs, caterpillars, maggots--living on land, on plants,
underground, in the water; feeding on leaves, in stems, on roots, on
carrion, on refuse; by hunting or by lurking after prey; as parasites or
as scavengers, brings home to us most strongly the conclusion that each
larva is fitted to some little niche in the vast temple of life, each is
specially adapted to its part in the great drama of being.




CHAPTER VII

PUPAE AND THEIR MODIFICATIONS


The pupal stage is characteristic of the life-story of those insects
whose larvae have wing-rudiments in the form of inpushed imaginal discs,
and in all these insects there is, as we have seen, considerable
divergence in form between larva and imago. In the pupa the wings and
other characteristically adult structures are, for the first time,
visible outwardly; it is the instar which marks the great crisis in
transformation. The pupa rests, as a rule, in a quiescent condition, and
during the early period of this stage the needful internal changes, the
breaking down of many larval tissues, and their replacement by imaginal
organs, go on. Both outwardly and inwardly therefore, the insect
undergoes, at the pupal stage, a reconstruction necessitated by the
differences in form and often in habit, between the larva and the winged