pharate The state of an insect that has formed a new exoskeleton but that is still covered by the old. An insect moults at the end of each instar, the pharate state occurring during the moulting process. There is some argument in the literature as to when each instar ends. Some say it is when the new exoskeleton is completed, others that it is when the old one has been sloughed.

pharate `Cloaked': describing a larva or adult when inside the cuticle of the previous developmental stage. For example, a newly metamorphosed adult insect may remain `cloaked' for some hours or even days within the pupal case until it receives the appropriate environmental cue that triggers emergence.