The Life-Story of Insects

Life-Story of Insects, The

Project Gutenberg's The Life-Story of Insects, by Geo. H. Carpenter This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Life-Story of Insects
Author: Geo. H. Carpenter
Release Date: August 1, 2005 [EBook #16410]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE-STORY OF INSECTS ***

Produced by Justin Kerk, Laura Wisewell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature

THE LIFE-STORY OF INSECTS

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS London: FETTER LANE, E.C. C.F. CLAY, MANAGER
[Illustration]
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.

[Illustration: _Frontispiece._ Transformation of a Gnat (_Culex_). Magnified 5 times. A. Larva. (The head is directed downwards and the tail-siphon with spiracle points upwards to the surface of the water.) B. 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 The wings of the Imago are crumpled, and the hind feet are not yet withdrawn.) C. Adult Gnat. Female.]

[Illustration]

THE LIFE-STORY
OF INSECTS

BY
GEO. H. CARPENTER
Professor of Zoology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin
Cambridge: at the University Press New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1913
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
I. Introduction 1
II. Growth and Change 8
III. The Life-stories of some Sucking Insects 16
IV. From Water to Air 23
V. Transformations, Outward and Inward 35
VI. Larvae and their Adaptations 49
VII. Pupae and their Modifications 79
VIII. The Life-story and the Seasons 89
IX. Past and Present--the Meaning of the Story 105
Outline Classification of Insects 122
Table of Geological Systems 123
Bibliography 124
Index 129

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Stages in the Transformations of a Gnat Frontispiece FIG PAGE 1. Stages of the Diamond-back Moth (_Plutella 3 cruciferarum_)
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_) 29-31
9. Nymph of May-fly (_Chloeon dipterum_) 33
10. Imaginal buds of Butterfly 39
11. Imaginal buds of Blow-fly 43
12. Carrion Beetle (_Silpha_) and larva 51
13. Larva of Ground-beetle (_Aepus_) 52
14. Willow-beetle (_Phyllodecta_) and larva 53
15. Cabbage-beetle (_Psylliodes_) and larva 54
16. Corn Weevil (_Calandra_) and larva 55
17. Ruby Tiger Moth (_Phragmatobia fuliginosa_) 61
18. Larvae and Pupa of Hive-bee (_Apis mellifica_) 65
19. Larva of Gall-midge (_Contarinia nasturtii_) 68
20. Crane-fly (_Tipula oleracea_) and larva 69
21. Maggot of House-fly (_Musca domestica_) 71
22. Ox Warble-fly (_Hypoderma bovis_) with egg, larva, and puparium 75
23. Pupa of White Butterfly (_Pieris_) 85
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Among the manifold operations of living creatures few have more strongly impressed the casual observer or more deeply interested the thoughtful student than the transformations of insects. The schoolboy watches the tiny green caterpillars hatched from eggs laid on a cabbage leaf by the common white butterfly, or maybe rears successfully a batch of silkworms through the changes and chances of their lives, while the naturalist questions yet again the 'how' and 'why' of these common though wondrous life-stories, as he seeks to trace their course more fully than his predecessors knew.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. a, Diamond-back Moth (_Plutella cruciferarum_); b, young caterpillar, dorsal view; c, full-grown caterpillar, dorsal view; d, side view; e, pupa, ventral view. Magnified 6 times. From _Journ. Dept. Agric. Ireland_, vol. I.]
Everyone is familiar with the main facts of such a life-story as that of a moth or butterfly. The form of the adult insect (fig. 1 _a_) is dominated by the wings--two pairs of scaly wings, carried respectively on the middle and hindmost of the three segments that make up the thorax or central region