In biology, the imago ( Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its

metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

, its process of growth and development; it is also called the imaginal stage, the stage in which the insect attains maturity. It follows the final

ecdysis Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticle in many invertebrates of the clade Ecdysozoa. Since the cuticle of these animals typically forms a largely inelastic exoskeleton, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The remna ...

of the immature instars.Carpenter, Geo. H., The Life-Story of Insects. Cambridge University Press 1913. May be downloaded from: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16410 or https://archive.org/details/thelifestoryofin16410gut In a member of the Ametabola or

Hemimetabola Hemimetabolism or hemimetaboly, also called incomplete metamorphosis and paurometabolism,McGavin, George C. ''Essential Entomology: An Order-by-Order Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. pp. 20. is the mode of development of cert ...

, in which metamorphosis is "incomplete", the final ecdysis follows the last immature or '' nymphal'' stage. In members of the

Holometabola Endopterygota (from Ancient Greek ''endon'' 'inner' + ''pterón'' 'wing' + New Latin ''-ota'' 'having'), also known as Holometabola, is a superorder of insects within the infraclass Neoptera that go through distinctive larval, pupal, and adult st ...

, in which there is a pupal stage, the final ecdysis follows emergence from the pupa, after which the metamorphosis is complete, although there is a prolonged period of maturation in some species. The imago is the only stage during which the insect is sexually mature and, if it is a winged species, has functional wings. The imago often is referred to as the adult stage. Members of the order Ephemeroptera (mayflies) do not have a pupal stage, but they briefly pass through an extra winged stage called the subimago. Insects at this stage have functional wings but are not yet sexually mature. The Latin plural of ''imago'' is ''imagines'', and this is the term generally used by entomologists – however, ''imagoes'' is also acceptable.Gordh, Gordon; Headrick, David H. ''A Dictionary of Entomology''. Publisher: CABI 2010.

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Insect developmental biology {{Insect-stub

See also

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