Excerpt from A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation Most insects, in the course of their lives, are subject to very great changes of form, attended by equally remarkable changes in their habits and propensities. These changes, transformations, or metamorphoses, as they are called, might cause the same insect, at different ages, to be mistaken for as manv different animals. For example, a caterpillar, after feeding upon leaves till it is fully grown, retires into some place of concealment, casts off its caterpillar-skin, and pre sents itself in an entirely different form, one wherein it has neither the power of moving about, nor of taking food; in fact, in this its second or chrysalis state, the insect seems to be a lifeless oblong oval or conical body, without a distinct head, or movable limbs; after resting awhile, an inward struggle begins, the chrysalis-skin bursts Open, and from the rent issues a butter y or a moth, whose small and abby wings soon extend and harden, and become fitted to bear away the insect in search of the honeyed juice of owers and other liquids that suffice for its nourishment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."