282 MOTIONS OF INSECTS, 



the sides of ditches or the stalks of aquatic plants. If 

 it is placed in a glass half full of water, it so llxes 

 itself against the sides of it, that its head and tail are 

 in the water while -the remainder of the body is out 

 of it ; thus assuming; the form of a siphon, the tail 

 end being the longest. When this animal is disposed 

 to feed, it lifts its head and places it horizontally on 

 the surface of the water, so that it forms a right angle 

 with the rest of the body, which always remains in a 

 situation perpendicular to the surface. It then agi- 

 tates, with vivacity, a couple of brushes, formed of 

 hairs and fixed in the anterior part of the head, which 

 producing- a current towards the mouth, it makes its 

 meal of the various species of animalcula, abounding 

 in stagnant waters, that come within the vortex thus 

 produced. As these animals require to be firmly fixed 

 to the substance on which they take their station, and 

 their back is the only part, when they are doubled as 

 just described, that can apply to it, — they are furnished 

 with minute legs armed with black claws, by which 

 they are enabled to adhere to it. They have ten of 

 these legs : the four anterior ones, which point towards 

 the head and are distant from each other, are placed 

 upon the fourth and fifth dorsal segments of the body; 

 and the six posterior ones, which point to the anus and 

 are so near to each other as at first to look like one 

 leg, are placed on the eighth, ninth, and tenth. When 

 the animal moves, the body continues bent, and the 

 sixth segment, which is without feet and forms the 

 summit of the curve, goes first ''. De Geer named the 



■ Dc Gecr,Ti. 380— t. xxiv. /. 1-9. 



