ORDER V.——"NET-WINGED INSECTS. gad 
them dying on the same day in which they were born. 
The name of Day-flies was given them many years ago by 
Aristotle and Pliny (Hphemerius Diaria), and the same char- 
acteristics that made them an object of curiosity then at- 
tach to them now. ‘They are quite handsome little creat- 
ures, carrying their citron-colored wings perpendicularly to 
their backs, like butterflies, among whom they might be 
placed were not their birth-place and their metamorphoses 
so different. Besides, in their winged form they live only 
long enough to deposit their eggs, and then die. 
For the short duration of their ethereal life, however, 
they are sufficiently indemnified by their long existence as 
larva and pupa, those conditions continuing from two to 
three years, during which time they dwell under the water 
on the muddy ground, which is their food. The larve pro- 
ceed from a ball, or cluster of numerous eggs, which have 
been deposited in the water by the female fly. They are 
of a brown color, composed of fourteen joints, and have two 
black eyes, two antennz, short fore feet directed outward, 
like those of a mole, for the purpose of digging, and their 
whole body is only about an inch long. 
After they have attained their full size, generally in the 
months of June or July, they swim to the surface of the 
water, where they cast their skin and fly off into the air at 
the same moment, so that it seems as if they really flew out 
of the water as perfect insects, without undergoing any 
transformation. Every where the eyes are turned thou- 
sands upon thousands of them are seen arising from the 
surface of the water, like a series of rockets. In the same 
moment that the pupa are seen swimming on the water, 
they are also seen flying up into the air in their perfect con- 
dition. If one is in a boat, and stretches out his hand to 
catch a swimming pupa, he will have instead the perfect 
day-fly, for their metamorphosis takes place the moment 
they feel the atmospheric air. 
