The larva could eat, walk, roll, or swim. The pupa in this little case can do nothing but wait. The full-grown beetle can fly, swim, eat, walk, and is often a thing of great beauty.
If you dig about the roots of plants or under stones, you will, no doubt, find larva and pupa to look at. It is well to seek out these things for yourselves. Handle them gently; these are living things.
In some books you may read of a state of the insect called the image state. This name is given to the full-grown, perfect insect. It means that it has reached the same form that its mother had, which laid the egg. Larva means mask, and pupa means baby.
LESSON XXIV.
HOW TO LEARN ABOUT BEETLES.
No class of insects has been more studied and written about than beetles. Why is this? They are not as wise as the ants. They do not build homes and cities, as bees and wasps do. They make no honey and no wax. They have not the many trades of that busy Mrs. Wasp.
There are a few beetles which make little mud cells, or balls of dirt for their eggs, or weave little nests for the pupa. But their work is poor and rude and not as fine as Mrs. Wasp can do.
No doubt the reason why beetles have had so much notice is, that there are very many of them, of very many kinds. They live where we can often see them. We can easily take them to pieces, to study their parts, for their bodies are firm and strong.
The parts of their bodies are very curious. Beetles can be kept a long time after they are dead. They will not spoil as soon as soft-bodied insects.
After all, the chief reason of the notice taken of beetles is their great beauty. It is a beauty of color and shape. Often the cases are lined and dotted as if carved with great care.