The Life-Story of Insects by George H. (George Herbert) Carpenter
page 62 of 132 (46%)
page 62 of 132 (46%)
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the pupa is enclosed in a cocoon, the cremaster serves to fix the pupa
to the surrounding silk. Chapman (1893) has drawn attention to the fact that among the more highly organised moths the pupa remains in the cocoon, the emergence being entirely left to the imago, while the pupae of the more primitive moths work their way partly out of the cocoon before the final moult begins. In the latter case, the cremaster is anchored by a strand of silk which allows a certain degree of emergence, and the pupa has rows of spines on its abdominal segments, of which a greater number retain the power of mutual motion than in those pupae which do not come out of their cocoons. [Illustration: Fig. 23. Pupa of White Butterfly (_Pieris_), side view; _f_, feeler; _w_, wing; _sp_, spiracle; _p_, anal pro-leg; _cr_, cremaster. Magnified 8 times. In part after Hatchett-Jackson, _Trans. Linn. Soc._ 1900, and Tutt's _British Butterflies_.] While the pupa on the whole resembles the imago that is to emerge from it, there are not a few cases in which a special structure necessary for some contingency in pupal life is retained or adopted in this stage. A butterfly pupa, like the imago, has no mandibles, but in the case of the Caddis-flies (Trichoptera) and two families of small moths, the most primitive of all Lepidoptera, the pupa, like the larva, has well-developed mandibles. These enable the caddis pupa to bite its way out of the shortened larval case in which it has pupated, and then to swim upwards through the water ready for the caddis-fly's emergence into the air. Pupae that are submerged require special breathing-organs. In the previous chapter (p. 77) mention was made of the gnat's aquatic larva with its tail-spiracles adapted for procuring atmospheric air through the surface-film. The pupa of the gnat[10] also has 'respiratory trumpets' serving the same purpose, but these are a pair of processes on |
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