ORDER V.—NET-WINGED INSECTS. ao 
morphosis, the larve climb up the stem of some water- 
plant, and in about two hours after are capable of raising 
themselves up by their wings and flying away in the air. 
This whole operation may be witnessed by putting the 
grubs into a pail of water, and placing in it some sticks or 
branches upon which they may creep up and prepare them- 
selves for their aerial journeys. Fig. 60 represents one of 
these grubs, a larva of the Aéshna grandis. 
-As soon as their wings are 
dry they fly away with the 
same rapidity and with the 
same design as birds of prey, 
making hundreds of evolu- 
tions, up and down, upon the 
banks of rivers, ponds, and 
brooks, or sailing over gar- 
dens and meadows, and along 
the fences and shrubs, seek- 
ing something to eat. 
Fig. 60, 

Grub of the Dragon-fly. 
The manner of their copulation is also very curious. The 
male fastens the extremity of the hind body, which some- 
what resembles a pair of pinchers, to the neck of the fe- 
male, and thus united together, one behind the other, they 
fly about for hours. The female afterward deposits her 
eges, which are very small and white, upon the surface of 
the water, where they sink to the bottom, and in course of 
time are hatched by the caloric of the atmosphere. 
The Water-Mptu (Phryganea) is another very interest- 
ing genus of this order, which also has its birth-place in the 
water, but which is not so rapacious and cannibal-like in 
its habits. Its larva are very numerous, look like cater- 
pillars, and live in the water, breathing by means of gills. 
They metamorphose into moth-like insects, having pendant 
Wings, very small and transparent. 
As these larvee are not able to swim, during their abode 
