LESSON 30.-INSECTS-THEIR EGGS. Delicate-puny, thin, weakly. Brood-young ones. Pellet a small mass, like a little ball. WE have now to consider the different stages of an insect's growth, and will begin by remarking that insects are generally hatched from eggs.* Their eggs are of different colours and shapes, and often not bigger than small grains of gunpowder. You have seen hens' eggs, sparrows' eggs, and many other eggs, and you know that after the mother bird has set some time upon her nest, the young bird bursts the shell of the egg, and comes out somewhat resembling its mother; but the mother fly has no sooner laid her eggs than she usually goes away, leaving her eggs on leaves, wood, and other substances, and most generally dies.† In warm summer weather, the eggs of insects are frequently hatched in a few days, but others will keep for months; and when at last they spring open, out creeps, not a perfect little fly, but a thin delicate worm; and before the real fly, or the moth, or beetle, or butterfly, comes to its finished state, it generally has to pass through three great changes. It is first as we said, a worm, which is called its larva state, then the worm or larva falls into a chrysalis or quiet state, and out of this chrysalis state the perfect insect bursts into its winged life.‡ Had flies, moths, and butterflies been hatched with delicate wings, and light bodies, fit only to fly and to revel on sweet juices, they would not have been able to clear away from the face of the earth the decaying pieces of vegetable and animal refuse, which is the great work their Maker has appointed for flies *The house fly and some other flies are exceptions to this rule, the little grub being born alive. The bee and a few others are exceptions. There are one or two exceptions to this rule. The earwig is one, which comes out of the egg almost like its mother, only it wants its wings, which do not unfold for some time. and beetles to accomplish. Therefore, to carry on this labour, God has seen fit to make them first in the shape of worms, giving them long stomachs and enormous appetites, that they may eat abundantly. And He has taught the mother insect always to lay her little eggs in the right place for her young ones to find the food that is suitable to make them grow. The mother insect is very obedient to the will of her Maker in this respect, for the food which her little ones require is very different from the food which she herself can eat; yet she never fails to look out for that kind of provision which will nourish the beloved little grub she is not permitted to see. The butterfly cannot eat any part of a cabbage, yet she glues her eggs very carefully down upon its green leaves, and when her eggs are hatched, out creeps, as we have before said-not a little butterfly-but a small worm, called a caterpillar, a maggot, or a grub. Some butterflies, and some small green insects, fold up the end of a leaf and glue their eggs under the folded part: some beetles lay their eggs in the bark, and some in the wood of trees; some insects, such as wasps, grind wood to powder, and then glue it together to make a cell; some beetles, moths, and butterflies make holes in the ground, and before they lay their eggs in this cell, they store it with a dead fly, or some other kind of food proper for the expected brood. A large moth was one day seen to drag a spider into her nest, and then with her legs she covered the top of the hole with earth. Many large flies, and some long delicate ones, lay their eggs in the flesh of living animals. Some spin silken balls for their eggs; others, like the bee, make waxen cells, moths lay their eggs on wool and furs, some roll them in dust. The flea lays twelve little eggs at a time, either in dust, or at the roots of hairs on animals, or on the down of linen or flannel; and when the delicate fine worm of the flea is hatched, it is very lively, and curls itself about on these things. living upon the down, or upon the scurf of the skin; in a short time it spins a few silken threads round its body, and after a sound sleep of a few days, it comes out a perfect flea. People who shake things, and often use brooms, have fewest fleas. The Gnat's Boat of Eggs, They hatch in three weeks or a month. The common gnat glues 250 or 300 of her eggs into the shape of a little boat; this boat she fastens by a fine silken thread, to the leaf of some small weed, and then leaves it to float on the surface of water in ponds and ditches. But by far the greatest number of beetles and flies lay their eggs in the offensive refuse of animal and vegetable matter; so we see, that wherever the mother insect tenderly deposits her eggs, there she generally leaves them to the care of that God, who has taught her to provide for her little ones. manure, One beetle rolls each of her eggs in a separate ball of and then leaves the ball to dry. As soon as these balls become hard, she returns to the place, and walking backwards, endeavours with her hind legs to push them altogether into one heap. Sometimes a lump of earth lies in the road, and over this difficulty the poor beetle strives to push her little pellet; but often, just as it is mounted to the top, down it falls. Time after time the beetle will try, and sometimes succeed, but if she be fairly mastered by the difficulty in her way, several other beetles will run up and help her, all pushing at the pellet with their hind legs, till it is borne triumphantly over, and safely placed amongst the pile of little pellets already collected. Insects vary in the number of eggs they lay; some lay only a few, others thousands upon thousands. The silk-worm moth lays about one hundred eggs. The great goat moth, one thousand. The female wasp lays thirty thousand, and the queen bee about forty or fifty thousand; and some female ants are said to lay as many as one hundred thousand eggs in the year. Our next lesson will contain the history of the larva and chrysalis states of insects. LESSON 31.-INSECTS-THEIR CHANGES. Part 1. Voraciously-with greedy haste (Lat. Suspend-hang (Lat. pendeo, I hang). Sociable-fond of company (Lat. socius, a companion). THE LARVA, OR FIRST STATE. As soon as an insect is hatched, its body comes forth in the shape of a worm, being formed of horny rings, with flesh between them. Some of these worm-like grubs are naked, whilst others are covered with hair. Naturalists call these grubs by the name of larvae, (which means a mask,) from their large bodies hiding up the real fly. In this worm state they have large stomachs, and they eat voraciously, and change their skins several times. The hole we often see in a filbert, is bored by a beautiful little beetle, with two wings; having two wing-cases striped with yellow bands. This beetle is called a weevil; it has six feet, and a long and slender ebony beak. When it has bored a hole with its beak, in the soft skin of a young filbert, it lays in it one little brown egg. As soon as the warm sun has hatched the little weevil grub, its sets about eating the inside skin of the filbert shell, always taking care, as its own body grows bigger, to nibble a piece off the side of the hole which its mother had made, that it may be able to escape when it pleases. When the skin of the filbert grows hard and dry, the little grub turns its head down to the nut, which by this time has grown to a good size; and should we chance to break the filbert, containing such an inhabitant, we should find a small white maggot, in the joy of its new life, gnawing fast and revelling upon the sweet food of the oily kernel. But should we leave such a filbert alone, it would fall from the tree in September, and then the little white maggot would creep out, and hide itself in the earth, where it would sleep in its chrysalis state till the following May, after which it would come forth a beautiful little beetle, like its mother. Flies and beetles in their perfect state, never increase in size, but in their larva state, they grow fast; and it is during that time that all the parts of the future insect are formed, under the skin of the grub. The body of a dead caterpillar having been stripped of its skin, by boiling it a few minutes in water, the wings of the future butterfly were clearly seen, lying neatly folded up on its sides; not that the wings were so far made as to be ready to be unfurled; they were only preparing for the time when the worm should be changed into the winged insect: just as teeth are preparing in the gums of young children, but are not ready to come forth till the child is old enough to eat solid food. When the larvæ or caterpillars have grown to their proper size, and cease to eat, they begin to look out for a quiet hiding place, suitable for taking a long sleep in. Some creep into the earth many shelter themselves under the bark of trees; and when men rive wood, they often see them roll out of their hiding places. Vast numbers of caterpillars quit the trees, upon whose H |