bridge:
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_)