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I have at hand some long bits of reed in the hollow of which an Osmia, the Three-horned Osmia, has stacked her cells, bounded by earthen partitions. "Bramble-bees and Others": chapters 2 to 5. When the reed is split lengthwise, the cells come into view, together with their provisions, the egg lying on the paste, or even the budding larva.
In most cases, however, the larvæ, though active, still obey, more or less closely, the law of common embryonic resemblance. Cirripedes afford a good instance of this: even the illustrious Cuvier did not perceive that a barnacle was, as it certainly is, a crustacean; but a glance at the larva shows this to be the case in an unmistakeable manner.
Remember that the primary larva of the Oil-beetle, for instance, settles on any insect that happens to pay a momentary visit to the flower in which the tiny creature is on the look-out.
Lastly, it differs yet more profoundly from the pupa and the chrysalis because from both these organisms the perfect insect springs straightway, whereas that which follows what we are considering is simply a larva like that which went before.
The feasters swim it is the only word in the midst of plenty; they eat and digest like brothers. Presently, times become hard for the hostess' son; the food decreases, dearth sets in; and at length not an atom remains, although the Mason's larva has attained at most a quarter of its growth.
These include the Languedocian Sphex, with her Ephippiger, and the Hairy Ammophila, with her Grey Worm. There is none of this sudden constriction, dividing the creature into two disparate halves, when the victuals consist of numerous and comparatively small items. The larva then retains its usual shape, being obliged to pass, at brief intervals, from one joint in its larder to the next.
Even the twisted hermit crab, which has a soft-skinned hinder part coiled to fit the curve of the snail shell used as a protection, is symmetrical and lobster-like when it is a larva. Among the insects many examples occur that are already familiar to every one.
Thus perished the strongest of them all, the Great Capricorn, in my artificial oak-wood cells and even in my reed-stumps closed with their natural partitions. They have not the strength, or rather the patient art; and the larva, more highly gifted, works for them. It gnaws with indomitable perseverance, an essential to success even for the strong; it digs with amazing foresight.
Here the fundamental characters of the larva are those of the Corydalus and Sialis and Panorpa, types of closely allied groups. The features that remind us of caterpillars are superadded, evidently the result of the peculiar tube-inhabiting habits of the young Caddis fly. In like manner the caterpillar-form is probably the result of the leaf-eating life of a primitive Leptiform larva.
For three years on end the larva wanders about in the thick of the trunk; it goes up, goes down, turns to this side and that; it leaves one vein for another of better flavour, but without moving too far from the inner depths, where the temperature is milder and greater safety reigns.
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