cience.

The study of the transformations of the moths is also of great
importance to one who would acquaint himself with the questions
concerning the growth and metamorphoses and origin of animals. We should
remember that the very words "metamorphosis" and "transformation," now
so generally applied to other groups of animals and used in
philosophical botany, were first suggested by those who observed that
the moth and butterfly attain their maturity only by passing through
wonderful changes of form and modes of life.

The knowledge of the fact that all animals pass through some sort of a
metamorphosis is very recent in physiology. Moreover the fact that these
morphological eras in the life of an individual animal accord most
unerringly with the gradation of forms in the type of which it is a
member, was the discovery of the eminent physiologist Von Baer. Up to
this time the true significance of the luxuriance and diversity of
larval forms had never seriously engaged the attention of systematists
in entomology.

What can possibly be the meaning of all this putting on and taking off
of caterpillar habiliments, or in other words, the process of moulting,
with the frequent changes in ornamentation, and the seeming
fastidiousness and queer fancies and strange conceits of these young and
giddy insects seems hidden and mysterious to human observation. Indeed,
few care to spend the time and trouble necessary to observe the insect
through its transformations; and that done, if only the larva of the
perfect insect can be identified and its form sketched how much was
gained! A truthful and circumstantial biography, in all its relations,
of a single insect has yet to be written!

We should also apply our knowledge of the larval forms of insects to the
details of their classification into families and genera, constantly
collating our knowledge of the early stages with the structural
relations that accompany them in the perfect state.

The simple form of the caterpillar seems to be a concentration of the
characters of the perfect insect, and presents easy characters by which
to distinguish the minor groups; and the relative rank of the higher
divisions will only be definitely settled when their forms and methods
of transformation are thoroughly known. Thus, for example, in two groups
of the large Attacus-like moths, which are so amply illustrated in Dr.
Harris's "Treatise on Insects injurious to Vegetation"; if we take the
dif