161 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



food that presented itself, and conveying it to your 

 mouth. Yet this procedure is that adopted by the 

 larvae of the dragon-fly provided with this strange 

 organ. While it is at rest, it applies close to and 

 covers the face. When the insects would make use 

 of it, they unJoid it like an arm, catch the prey at 

 which they aim by means of the mandibuliform 

 plates, and then partly refold it so as to hold the prey 

 to the mouth in a convenient position for the opera- 

 tion of the two pairs of jaws with which they are pro- 

 vided. Reaumur once found one of them thus hold- 

 ing and devouring a large tadpole ; a sufficient proof 

 that Swammerdam was greatly deceived in imagining 

 earth to be the food of animals so tremendously armed 

 and fitted for carnivorous purposes. In the larvsB of 

 LibeUula, Fabr., it is so exactly resembling a mask, 

 that if entomologists ever went to masquerades, they 

 could not more effectually relieve the insipidity of 



The mask of the dragon-fly grub, in four diflferent states of 

 opening and shutting. 



such amusements and attract the attention of the de- 

 moiselles than by appearing at the supper-table with a 

 mask of this construction, and serving themselves by 

 its assistance. It would be difficdt, to be sure, by 



