In the breeding jars, with plenty of food and a constant temperature of from 68° to 78° F., the larvæ cast their 1st skin in from four to nine days, the great majority moulting at seven days. Under the same conditions the 2d skin was cast at from four to seven days, the majority moulting at six days; the 3d skin at from three to six days, the majority moulting at five days; and the 4th skin at from three to six days, the majority moulting at five days; the 5th skin at from five to seven days, and the 6th skin at six days. There are thus seven larval stages. (Report for 1885, p. 260.)
Riley has ascertained that by rearing isolated larvæ of Tenebrio molitor, one after being kept nearly a year had moulted 11 times, when it died. A second larva, hatched June 5, had moulted 12 times by June 10 of the following year, (1877), when it also died. Of T. obscurus three larvæ were reared to the imago state. One moulted 11 times by Aug. 30 of the same year, pupated Jan. 20, 1877, and finally became a beetle Feb. 7, 1877. The other two both moulted 12 times, and reached the imago stage Feb. 18 and March 9, respectively. “All were, as nearly as possible, under like conditions of food and surroundings, and in all cases the moult that gave the pupa is not considered among the larval moults.”
Two larvæ of the museum pest (Trogoderma tarsale) were kept by Riley in a tight tin box with an old silkworm cocoon. “They were half-grown when placed in the box. On Nov. 8, 1880, there were in the box 28 larva skins, all very much of a size, the larva having apparently grown but little. The skins were removed and the box closed again as tightly as possible. Recently, or after a lapse of two years, the box was again opened and we found one of the larvæ dead and shrivelled up; but the other was living and apparently not changed in appearance. There were 15 larva skins in the box. He could not tell when the one larva died, but it is certain that within a little more than three and a half years, two larvæ shed not less than 43 skins, and that one larva did not, during that time, appreciably increase in size. We know of no observations which indicate the normal or average length of life, or number of moults in either Tenebrio or Trogoderma, but it is safe to assume from what is known, in these respects, of allied species, that in both the instances here referred to, but particularly in the case of Trogoderma, development was retarded by insufficient nutrition, and that the frequent moulting and slow growth resulted therefrom, and were correlated.”[[99]] Further observations such as these are greatly needed.
Of the Siphonaptera the common cat and dog flea (Pulex serraticeps) moults three times before pupating. (Howard.)
In Lepidoptera the usual or average number of moults is four, but the number varies considerably, the greatest number yet known occurring in Phyrrarctia isabella, which, Dr. Dyar informs me, moults 10 times.
From Dyar’s observations it appears that there are usually five larval stages, but six and seven stages are not infrequent, while there are seven in Seirarctia echo, eight in Ecpantheria scribonia, Scepis, and Apatelodes, and nine and ten in arctians, while the European Nola centonalis moults nine times, other species of this genus shedding their skins six times. (Buckler.) (Psyche, v, pp. 420–422.) Callosamia promethea appears, as a rule, to moult but three times. Orgyia antiqua was found by Hellins to moult from three to five times. Riley found that in O. leucostigma the males moult four times, the female four, but sometimes five times, while Dyar states that in O. gulosa the male larvæ moult three or four times, the female always four times; in O. antiqua, however, there are six stages, and in the female seven. Lithocolletis, Chambers thinks, as a rule, moults eight times, and Comstock thinks that L. hamadryadella casts its skin seven or eight times.
In the blow-fly (Calliphora) Leuckart and Weismann have inferred at least two moults, while Weismann suspected that there are as many as four. In Musca domestica we have observed that the larva moults three times; in Œstridæ there are three larval stadia. (Brauer.) In Corethra there are four larval moults, and Miall thinks there are probably as many in Chironomus. Passing to the phytophagous Hymenoptera, there are three moults or four larval stages in Nematus erichsonii, but Dyar informs us that less than four stages in saw-fly larvæ is very rare, that he has only one record of less than five, and that that is doubtful; “five for nematid, six and seven for others, is certainly the rule. The highest I have is the indication of 11 stages for Harpiphorus varianus, but this again is an inference only, and attended with doubt.” (Can. Ent., xxvii, p. 208.) In Bombus we have observed five different sizes of larvæ, and hence suppose the least number of ecdyses is five, while we are disposed to believe that this insect, as well as wasps and bees, in general shed their skins as many as eight times during their entire existence.
The honey-bee, Cheshire thinks, since he has found the old and ruptured pellicles, probably moults six times before it spins its cocoon, or passes into the semipupa condition. (Bees and Bee-keeping, p. 20.)
As to the cause of the great number of moults in the arctians and in the beetles experimented with by Riley, it would seem that cold and the lack of food during hibernation were the agents in arctians, and starvation or the lack of food in the case of the beetles, such cause preventing growth, though the hypodermis-cells retained their activity.
Reproduction of lost limbs.—Here might be discussed the subject of the renovation or renewal of maimed or lost limbs, or the reparation of other injuries. As is well known, the cœlenterates, echinoderms, and worms under certain circumstances multiply by self-division, or if artificially mutilated, the parts are gradually restored by cell-proliferation or histogenesis. It is so with the antennæ and legs of crustaceans as well as the digits and tail of salamanders. The experiments first made by Le Pelletier[[100]] on spiders, and later by Heineken,[[101]] and others after him, on different spiders, as well as on Orthoptera and Hemiptera (Blatta, Reduvius, etc.), have proved that antennæ and legs and other external parts which have been injured or shortened, or entirely cut off in young individuals, are replaced at the next, or after successive moults, though generally in diminished size. This does not usually occur in adult life, and the process of reparation of lost parts is apparently due to the active growth of the cells of the parts affected during the process of moulting, when the histolysis of the maimed or diseased parts is succeeded by the rapid development of new cells, not only of the hypodermis, but also of the more specialized tissues within. And this tends to prove that such histolysis and making over of the muscles and other structures within occur especially in all metamorphic insects, and also in ametabolous forms, though the process has been most thoroughly examined in the Diptera, where these changes are more marked.