35-i INSECTS ABROAD. 



of the wasps, bees, and other sting-bearing insects. The very 

 prevalent idea respecting their habit of stinging horses has 

 probably arisen from the fact that they live entirely upon 

 insects, which they capture on the wing. As various flies do 

 persecute horses greatly in the summer months, and often follow 

 them in swarms, the Dragon Fly finds an ample supply of prey 

 near the horse, and is, in fact, the protector rather than the 

 persecutor of the animal. 



In the larval and pupal stages of their life they are inhabit- 

 ants of the water, and are quite as predacious under water as 

 they are in the air when they obtain their wings. There is but 

 little difference of shape in the larva and pupa, except that 

 in the latter the rudimental wings are seen on the back, in 

 the form of four thick, leather-like plates, giving little promise 

 of the ample, gauzy, shining wings which are concealed beneath 

 them. 



Both the larvse and pupae of the Dragon Flies possess a most 

 curious development of the lower lip, technically named the 

 " mask," because, when it is not in active use, it covers the face 

 of the insect exactly as a mask would do. The mask cannot be 

 exactly described without the use of diagrams. Suffice it to 

 say that it forms a curiously jointed weapon, armed at the end 

 with a pair of toothed jaws. It can be darted out with very 

 great quickness, and when the prey has been caught, the mask 

 is folded back, and thus brings the captured insect into the 

 mouth of its destroyer. 



As both the larvaj and pupte of the Dragon Flies are plentiful 

 in any of our ponds or ditches, the reader can easily capture 

 some specimens, and watch their habits, which are very interest- 

 ing. The creatures almost always lie under the shelter of weeds 

 and close to the bank, so that they may be caught by passing 

 a net closely along the bank where the weeds lie thickest. 

 They are very fond of the shelter of the common duck-weed, 

 and I have taken three or four specimens in such spots with a 

 single sweep of a net only five inches in diameter. 



As a rule these larvai and pupas feed upon subaquatic crea- 

 tures which are sufficiently active to escape in case they were 

 alarmed by the movements of their foe. In order therefore to 

 enable them to dart quickly through the water without causing 

 much disturbance, the Dragon Fly larvtc are furnished with a 



