On the Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects ^*

Abstract

V THE development of the beautiful Comatula rosacca (Fig. 41) has been described in the “Philosophical Transactions,” by Piof. Wyville Thomson.* The larva quits the egg, as shown in Fig. 42, in the form of an oval body about 1/30 inch in length, something like a small barrel, surrounded by four bands or hoops of long vibratile hairs or ciliæ. There is also a still longer tuft of hairs at the narrower posterior end of the body. Gradually a number of minute calcareous spines and plates make their appearance (Fig. 43) in the body of this larva, and at length arrange themselves in a definite order, so as to form a bent calcareous club or rod with an enlarged head.