Grating of the Pupa-case.
It has been mentioned that the larva known under this name constructs for itself a case of various materials in which it dwells at the bottom of the waters, where the hand of the young angler knows well to find them. This case is heavier than water, and consequently cannot float, and so carry the insect to the surface. As the insect enters the pupa state it weaves, at the entrance of its singular habitation, a grating of silk, which, strange to say, is not only not softened and melted away by the water, but hardens under it until it is as hard as gum. This little grating is of a circular form, and fits exactly into the opening, and is perforated with holes, so as to look something like the gratings which cover our coal-cellar mouths in the pavement of cities. These holes are for the purpose of letting in fresh water for the respiration of the insect. Out of this under-water cell the insect must make its escape. To enable it so to do the pupa is furnished with two strong curved jaws, which are of no other use than to assist it in making an opening in one of the silken doors of its case, as they are cast off immediately afterwards, and there remains not a vestige of them in the perfect insect. This opening made, the pupa forces its way out at that end. But what then? How is it to reach the surface, even now? Its legs, as will be seen by looking at the cut, are furnished with a number of hair-like processes, which assist it in swimming; it therefore, still enclosed in the waterproof coat—the pupa skin—strikes upwards to the surface, and reaching it, its skin splits, its impervious raiment is cast aside, and the insect springs from the surface into the air without the minutest drop of water to impede her flight, or injure the delicate tissue of her wings!
Caddis-fly's Legs magnified to show the Hairs.
Escape of the Gnat from its Pupa-case.
We may take another common insect for an illustration of this mode of escape from the pupa, of an equally interesting kind. If the reader will on some fine summer day resort to any place of standing water by the road-side, he may probably succeed in discovering the emergence of a number of gnats; and a very amusing occupation it is to stand by and watch the insect,—this moment an occupant of the waters, and the next darting in the air, a new and air-breathing form of existence! About ten days after the gnat has become pupa, it prepares for leaving that state and becoming a perfect insect by raising itself to the surface of the water, stretching out its body there, the thorax, or, in simpler language, the front enlarged part being raised above it. Immediately the eye of the observer detects the fact that some change is taking place in the insect; the enlarged portion cracks and splits, and through this opening the head of the gnat makes its appearance; then the trunk of the insect rises in a curious manner through the breach, and more and more of its body rises, preserving all the time a perpendicular position, so that it looks just as if it were rising out of the water, and not out of the horizontal pupa case floating on the surface. The upright body of the gnat now resembles a mast in a boat, only that it is continually being raised higher and higher by the gradual emergence of the insect. Its wings and legs are all folded closely down its sides as is shown in the cut; and it has therefore no power at all to prevent its being overset by a breeze, and drowned in the little waves below; the lower portion of its body alone retains it in this position, being as yet contained within the pupa case. No ship-builder dare venture to put a mast of such proportions into any of his vessels, for fear of their being top-heavy, and hence liable to heel over in a gale of wind. And undoubtedly many gnats, particularly in windy weather, are shipwrecked as soon as they emerge. This is, in fact, a moment of peculiar danger to the little insect-mariner, and a breath of untoward air will frequently drive it about like a ship in a tempestuous ocean; and if it is once laid on its side, all is over with the gnat; no patent apparatus can save it; and we have the mournful testimony of Réaumur, that in stormy weather he has seen a vast number of such shipwrecks in the mimic ocean of a pool of water. Generally speaking, the peril is only momentary, and the insect emerges in safety. Having thus raised itself to the perpendicular position, the gnat withdraws its two forelegs from the pupa case, and stretches them out; then it draws out its two next; and now feeling safe, it quits the perpendicular position and bends toward the water, plants its feet on its glistening surface, which is to it as safe as the land, since it has the faculty of walking on the waves. It is now in perfect safety, its wings expand and become dry, and presently the insect will for the first time make use of them by flying to some adjoining twig.
Blood-worms, natural size and magnified.
But we need not in many cases leave our homes to see an escape from the pupa in every respect as singular as the last, and in many, precisely identical. Before the writer's study-window was an artificial fountain, in which, as the water was not constantly allowed to play, aquatic insects of various kinds had permission to establish themselves. Nor were they long in availing themselves of this liberty. A week or two of genial summer weather was sufficient to people the water with various inhabitants among them was a little creature which will be recognised by every reader when we mention its title—"the blood-worm." It is in reality not a worm at all, although resembling worm in shape, and in its serpent-like movements. This little creature was for a time particularly active; and in a tumbler of water taken from the fountain might be seen perhaps a dozen of them twisting about in a very singular manner. By-and-by a change came over them, and it turned out that the worm-like creatures had become pupæ of a blackish colour, thus at once deciding their insect character. They belong, in fact, to the insect called the Chironomus plumosus. These black pupæ were scarcely less active than the red blood-worms, or larvæ of the same insect. They flapped about their tails with great vehemence, and thus, although their bodies naturally sink in the water, they were able to swim from the bottom to the surface, or from side to side. Observing that they had finished their appointed period in the pupa form, we became anxious to watch their change into the perfect insect. Neglecting, however, to notice them at the proper period,—the afternoon of a warm sunny day, we were astonished the next morning to find a surprising number of pupa skins lying empty of their tenants on the surface, as though some of the water fairies enumerated in fable had been dancing on the waves all night, and left their little black shoes behind them in their haste to flee from the light of the smiling morning. We determined to be better prepared for the observation on that day; and as the afternoon came we had the gratification of seeing a large number of these insects rise from the water, all in the following[Q] manner:—They rose up from the bottom and reached the surface by the peculiar movement of their tails just described; there the thorax was thrust above the water, and immediately the insect burst its cerements, elevated itself by a wave-like motion from the rest of the pupa-case, which filled with air, and now glistened like silver; it then planted its forelegs on the water, withdrew the rest of its body from the case, unfolded its wings, and in a few moments was sailing in the thin air. On one stormy day the surface of our fountain was bestrewn with the dead and dying bodies of these insects drowned in the waves.