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From the remarks
made we can see how by
of structure in the young, in conformity with
habits of life, together with inheritance at corresponding ages,
→animals in certain cases might come to pass through stages of development, perfectly distinct from their primordial, adult condition.
↑
Fritz Müller, who has recently discussed this
subject with much ability,
→OMIT
that the progenitor of all insects
resembled an adult insect, and that the caterpillar or
→stages, as well as the
cocoon or pupal stages, have subsequently been acquired; but from this view many naturalists, for instance Sir J. Lubbock, who has likewise recently discussed this subject, would, it is probable, dissent. That certain unusual stages in the metamorphoses of insects have
→been acquired through
to peculiar habits of
hardly be
thus the first larval form of a certain beetle, the Sitaris, as described by M. Fabre, is
→an active, minute
insect, furnished with six legs, two long antennæ, and four eyes. These larvæ are hatched in the
of
and when the male-bees emerge
→OMIT
from their
→spring, which they do
before the females, the larvæ spring on them, and afterwards
→crawl on the females whilst paired with the males.
→As soon as the females
lay their
→OMIT
on the surface of the
→stored in their cells, the larvæ of the Sitaris
on the
and
→Afterwards these larvæ
a complete change;
eyes disappear;
legs and antennæ become rudimentary, and
on honey; so that
now more closely
the ordinary larvæ of insects; ultimately
and finally
as
perfect beetle. Now, if an insect, undergoing transformations like those of the Sitaris,
→were to become
the progenitor of
whole
class of insects,
course of
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