30 NOTES ON 
mouth, they speedily devour it. They are very 
courageous. I have sometimes seen them, 
when pressed by hunger, attack larve of the 
Dytici of nearly double their own size. If 
kept in a glass jar without food, they will de- 
vour each other, first destroying the tails. The 
ravages they commit on their less offensive 
neighbours would soon exterminate many genera 
if they were as prolific as they are voracious. 
The all-wise Creator has limited the increase of 
these carnassial insects, the perfect fly only lay- 
ing about two dozen eggs, while the number 
produced by some herbaceous tribes amount 
to as many thousand. 
The colour of these larvee when young, is 
ferruginous, with markings, at intervals, of a 
deeper brown. As they increase in size, the 
wings make their appearance, and the head 
begins to assume a brilliant variegated trans- 
parent green; after this, the body gradually 
exhibits the same hue, as shewn in the draw- 
ing. The ramifications in the tail, and the two 
vessels running along the body, assume the 
rich warm colouring there shewn—an effect 
which is greatly assisted by being contrasted 
with the transparency of the surrounding parts. 
From the splendour of these tints, and their 
