In the case of those insects not involved by a metamorphosis, as discussed above, the structure and habit of both adult and the immature stages differ but little, the development of wings being the principal change, except in the case of the thrips, where there is a definite tendency toward a pupa. However, passing on to a consideration of the common cicada (wrongly called a locust), a change in both structure and habit occurs during the life-cycle, the immature stages being adapted to a subterranean life, while the winged adult frequents the foliage of trees; all stages agree, however, in puncturing plant tissues with their proboscis and sucking up the nutrient juices from the roots by the larva and from the stems and leaves by the adult.
The female cicada ([Fig. 4]) lays its eggs in colonies beneath the young bark of trees and shrubs; the larvæ, on hatching, drop to the ground, into which they burrow; the antennæ and soft body are comparatively long, while the fore legs are greatly modified for grasping plant roots and as digging tools. After a number of moults, the body shortens, the antennæ come to resemble those of the adult, and the rudiments of the wings appear. Growth and the activities of the developing insect continue until finally the larva constructs an earthen underground chamber, in which it lies torpid until ready to undergo the final moult; in this inactive state, though still resembling the later larval stages, the insect corresponds to the pupa of the moth. For the final moult the pupa leaves the ground, crawls up some support (a tree trunk or post), where the winged adult emerges, leaving the empty pupal husk attached to the support. Besides the change in habit and the possession of functional wings, the adult cicada differs in many structural features from the immature stages. Outstanding differences are the normal fore legs, the development of a “voice-box” in the male, and an ovipositor in the female.
An insect that shows some linkage between those having a true metamorphosis and those having a partial metamorphosis is the aphis-lion (Micromus tasmaniæ), though undergoing a true metamorphosis itself. The larvæ are predaceous and feed upon aphids ([Fig. 4]). Its larva, pupa, and adult are distinct forms, as in the moth, but the larva is not of the specialised caterpillar or grub type, rather resembling in general appearance the silverfish, or the type of young larva peculiar to such insects as the earwig or thrips before the wing rudiments develop. Furthermore, the pupa, though one in the strict sense, is capable of great freedom of movement, its head, mouth-parts, antennæ, legs and wings, ensheathed by the cuticle, being freely movable, and not rigidly attached to the body.
A review of the early larval stages of the earwig, thrips and cicada, prior to wing development, and of the aphis-lion larva, shows a conformity to a generalised type exemplified by the primitive silverfish. On the other hand, the moth caterpillar exhibits another larval type more highly specialised, though still retaining a modified semblance to the silverfish type, while specialisation is carried to the highest degree in the blowfly maggot, where all outward sign of the primitive larval type is lost. Regarding the pupæ, there are three types; the most simple is the free pupa, like that of the aphis-lion, and some moths, beetles, etc., where the appendages are freely movable. The most complex is the pupa of the blowfly, enclosed in its puparium, while intermediate between these two extremes are many moth pupæ that have the appendages firmly attached to the body, but nevertheless visible.