News and Curiosity

16-05-2003 :: What complex life!

The most primitive insects have a lifetime, from the egg to the adult, that takes place with stages during which the animal grows in dimension through moults, but it doesn't change its aspect. This is the eterometabolism. On the contrary, the most evoluted insects, like flies, bees, butterflies, coleopters, ultimate their lifetime undergoing a complete metamorphosis through a larval stage followed from a quiescent period into a cocoon, where its tissues melt entirely (excluded the nervous system) to beget the adult (the reproductive stage), often enterely different from its larva. This is the olometabolism (see the image at side).

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