LESSON XXIII.
WHEN MR. BEETLE WAS YOUNG.
Beetle Larva before it has Wings.
Beetle Larva before it has Wings.
In the lessons about the Ant, Fly, Wasp, Bee, and others, you have heard that the young insect makes three changes.
First it is a small white or light-colored egg; then a fat, greedy larva; then a pupa.
The insects you have thus far heard of, pass through all these changes in a short time. So do some of the young beetles. But there are beetles which spend one, two, three, even more, years, as eggs and grubs.
The long part of the lives of these other insects comes after they get their wings. The short part of a beetle’s life generally comes after he is winged.
You will not care to hear about the beetle while he is only an egg. As an egg he lies quiet where the mother beetle hid him. These eggs are placed in earth or in water. Sometimes they are put into the bodies of dead animals, or into holes in trees, or into fruit. Some kinds of beetles choose one place, some another, for their eggs.
After a while the larva comes out.Sometime you may find a long, soft, stupid white worm, with its body made in rings. It has two big eyes, two jaws, no feet, or, perhaps, very small ones, never any wings. Would you guess it was Mrs. Beetle’s child? By and by it will have strong wings, long, strong legs, a horny body, and very often colors like a rainbow.
But this which you call a “white worm” is the beetle larva after it is born from the egg. Sometimes it has no eyes. It is always very greedy. Beetle larvæ will eat almost anything but metals. They harm wood, trees, fruit, flowers, meal, furs, clothes, by gnawing and eating these things.
The larva of beetles looks like the larva of butterflies. It has no wings. No larva ever has wings.
The change of getting wings must come when the larva has gone into the pupa cradle. Often in this state it lies as if asleep or dead.
When it is a pupa it rests in a case or cradle shaped much like a hen’s egg. There the pupa lies, its legs folded over the front of its body, its wings packed by its side, its jaws and feelers laid on its breast. It looks very much like a baby laid asleep in a bed. It is not pretty like a dear baby. In fact, it is ugly to look at.
The larva could eat, walk, roll, or swim. The pupa in this little case can do nothing but wait.The full-grown beetle can fly, swim, eat, walk, and is often a thing of great beauty.
If you dig about the roots of plants or under stones, you will, no doubt, find larva and pupa to look at. It is well to seek out these things for yourselves. Handle them gently; these are living things.
In some books you may read of a state of the insect called the image state. This name is given to the full-grown, perfect insect. It means that it has reached the same form that its mother had, which laid the egg. Larva means mask, and pupa means baby.