THE LIFE-STORY OF INSECTS

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager

Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
London: H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C.
WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.

Frontispiece. Transformation of a Gnat (Culex). Magnified 5 times.

• Larva. (The head is directed downwards and the tail-siphon with spiracle points upwards to the surface of the water.)
• Pupal Cuticle from which the Imago is emerging. (The pair of 'respiratory trumpets' on the thorax of the pupa are conspicuous. The wings of the Imago are crumpled, and the hind feet are not yet withdrawn.)
• Adult Gnat. Female.

Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known Cambridge printer John Siberch 1521

PREFACE

The object of this little book is to afford an outline sketch of the facts and meaning of insect-transformations. Considerations of space forbid anything like an exhaustive treatment of so vast a subject, and some aspects of the question, the physiological for example, are almost neglected. Other books already published in this series, such as Dr Gordon Hewitt's House-flies and Mr O H. Latter's Bees and Wasps, may be consulted with advantage for details of special insect life-stories. Recent researches have emphasised the practical importance to human society of entomological study, and insects will always be a source of delight to the lover of nature. This humble volume will best serve its object if its reading should lead fresh observers to the brookside and the woodland.

G. H. C.

Dublin,
July, 1913.

CONTENTS

• Chap.  Page.

1. Introduction 1
2. Growth and Change 8
3. The Life-stories of some Sucking Insects 16
4. From Water to Air 23
5. Transformations, Outward and Inward 35
6. Larvae and their Adaptations 49
7. Pupae and their Modifications 79
8. The Life-story and the Seasons 89
9. Past and Present—the Meaning of the Story 105
10. Outline Classification of Insects 122
11. Table of Geological Systems 123
12. Bibliography 124
13. Index 129

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

• Stages in the Transformations of a Gnat Frontispiece
  Fig. Page.

1. Stages of the Diamond-back Moth (Plutella cruciferarum) 3
2. Head of typical Moth 5
3. Head of Caterpillar 5
4. Common Cockroach (Blatta orientalis) 12
5. Nymph of Locust (Schistocera americana) 13
6. Aphis pomi, winged and wingless females 19
7. Mussel Scale-Insect (Mytilaspis pomorum) 21
8. Emergence of Dragon-fly (Aeschna cyanea)