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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: insects, as with Aphis. With respect to the final cause of the young in
these cases not undergoing any metamorphosis, or closely resembling their
parents from their earliest age, we can see that this would result from the
two following contingencies; firstly, from the young, during a course of
modification carried on for many generations, having to provide for their
own wants at a very early stage of development, and secondly, from their
following exactly the same habits of life with their parents; for in this
case, it would be indispensable for the existence of the species, that the
child should be modified at a very early age in the same manner with its
parents, in accordance with their similar habits. Some further
explanation, however, of the embryo not undergoing any metamorphosis is
On the Origin of Species |
