342 THE NATURALIST. 



like two-handed labium to seize its victim. Once caught, fruitless are all 

 endeavours to escape. Nothing remains but inevitable death. The 

 specimen in my possession was a great slaughterer of the poor tadpole. 

 Often have I seen them when sailing near, seized by this carnivorous little 

 insect, and struggling violently for life but all in vain. The insect, having 

 made an incision and bared the flesh on one side, would turn him round 

 by means of the hand-like processes, before alluded to, with as much ease 

 and precision as a man-cook would handle a joint of meat. It required 

 several " taddies " to sate his appetite. The active pupa arriving at the 

 period of change ascends some plant on the bank and bursting its tight- 

 fitting coat creeps forth, leaving its late dress perfect, even to the eyes, 

 antennse, and claws. This skin may be, and often is, picked up as a live 

 larva, the mistake not being discovered till by a slight pressure it collapses, 

 to the astonishment of the non-entomological beholder. Such indeed was 

 my first introduction to this insect. The imago rests a few moments with 

 expanded wings in order to dry and give them the necessary rigidity ; it 

 then commences its aerial life. In this last stage of existence it preys 

 upon other insects, which it rapidly pursues and takes upon the wing. 

 It is popularly known as the " Horse tang," or Horse sting ; a title that is 

 altogether unjust, as in common with other members of Neiiroptera, it 

 possesses no sting. How many such mis-nomers have been given, and 

 libellous statements made, with reference to this and other members of 

 the animal kingdom ! It were of little consequence under what name they 

 were known, were it not that they are daily made to suffer the pangs of 

 martyrdom for the mistaken notion that they are what their names indi- 

 cate, or what the ignorant declare them to be. We are daily through 

 ignorance, often wilful, killing those creatures that by faithfully discharg- 

 ing their duties in the economy of nature, are conferring blessings upon 

 us, none the less because unknown and unrecognized. 



Next in order of destructiveness, we may, perhaps not very wrongly, 

 name the Dyticus, larva and imago. Whether the " bumps of destructive- 

 ness " of this little creature are more than ordinarily developed, we may, 

 perhaps, profitably leave to the decision of that enlightened phrenologist 

 who carefully mapped out the head of a hair-covered turnip, and gave a 

 clear and precise account of its various powers — mathematical and other- 

 wise. Whatever his conclusion may be we can confidently afiirm, from 

 observation, that it plays sad havoc among the " toe-biters," or tadpoles, 

 and other aquatic animals. It generally seizes the young frog by the tail, 



