During this stage the cuticle draws away from the imaginal cuticle which is forming beneath, ultimately becoming separated as a thin transparent pellicle through which the form of the adult can be seen.
The worm inhabits the lung of the frog and toad, and is hermaphrodite (Schneider) or parthenogenetic (Leuckart); the embryos hatched from the eggs find their way through the lungs into the alimentary canal and thence to the exterior; in a few days they develop into a sexual larva, called a Rhabditiform larva, in which the sexes are distinct; the eggs remain within the uterus, and the young when hatched break through its walls and live free in the perivisceral cavity of the mother, devouring the organs of the body until only the outer cuticle is left; this eventually breaks and sets free the young, which are without teeth, and have therefore lost the typical Rhabditis form.
The cuticle is a dead substance, and is composed in large part of chitin.
They do n't have a thick, waxy cuticle that prevents transpiration.
For the latter purpose the hard, somewhat flinty grains are preferable, and they are prepared by grinding off the outer cuticle which forms " pot barley."
