160 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



It may not be improper to guard our younger 

 readers against mistaking for these telescopic-tailed 

 larvae an animal, found in the same situations, which 

 has a considerable general resemblance to them, 

 though it is not even an insect, but a water-worm 

 (Nais), upon which Bonnet made numerous curious 

 experiments. The nais may be easily known by its 

 being reddish, while the maggot is of a dirty white 

 colour. 



It appears to be the nais, or some similar fresh- 

 water worm, which medical men, unacquainted with 

 natural history, have supposed to get into the human 

 stomach through the medium of water, as we shall 

 presently notice. 



A no less singular structure for respiration than that 

 just described, occurs in the aquatic larvae of the 

 dragon-flies {LibeUulidcB^ Leach), which differs so 

 remarkably from the perfect insects in the beauty of 

 colour and elegance of form that has procured for 

 them the gallant appellation of damsels {demoiselles) 

 in France. This title agrees as badly with their 

 habits as the popular English name of horse-stingers, 

 since they have no apparatus for stinging ; " and so 

 far," says Reaumur, " from seeking an innocent nutri- 

 ment in the pulp of fruits or the nectar of flowers, 

 they are more like amazons than damsels, hovering 

 in the air only to pounce upon other insects, which 

 they crush with their powerful mandibles. Should 

 they quit the margin of a pond or the banks of a 

 rivulet, where they may be seen hawking about in 

 multitudes, it is only to pursue and seize the moth or 

 the butterfly, that has fled for shelter to the bushes." 



Though these larvae are furnished with six feet, 

 they not only move very little, but do not use them 

 for walking so much as for capturing their prey. 

 Their motion is effected by a very peculiar method. 

 When one of these larvae is procured from the bottom 

 of a pond or the pool of a brook, let it be put into a larg^ 



