The Transformations (or Metamorphoses) Of Insects, (Insecta, Myriapoda, Arachnida, and Crustacea)

Excerpt from The Transformations (or Metamorphoses) Of Insects, (Insecta, Myriapoda, Arachnida, and Crustacea): Being an Adaptation, for English Readers, of M. Émile Blanchard's "Metamorphoses, Moeurs Et Instincts Des Insects"; And a Compilation From the Works of Newport, Charles Darwin, and Others The articulate animals comprise those which the great Linnaeus called insects -that is to say, the true insects, the hundred-legs, the spiders, and the crabs. Insects existed in very remote geological ages, and their wings have been found beautifully preserved in the remains of those old forests and swamps which have been formed into coal. Thus early in the world's history the beetle droned at eventide, and the merry chirp of the grasshopper was added to the song of Nature. Moreover, the hundred-legs of the period enjoyed the quietude of the great tree stems, and many a spider spread its web on the ferns and the close underwood. Coal is dug up from depths of hundreds of fathoms, and is covered by sediments which are the remains of old continents, and sea bottoms, the thickness of which is a measure of the time they took to form; yet so far back in the annals of Nature the tiny insects came from the egg, lived as gormandising grubs, changed into sleepy pupae, and burst forth into lively winged creatures. Ever since, and during all the successive changes of the world's surface, insect life has manifested itself, and now articulate animals are found everywhere. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.