10 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



now in little tents of leaves, we could point out 

 many a colony of eggs only waiting for the life- 

 giving influence of spring to burst into life and 

 activity. 



But it is better for us to proceed more sys- 

 tematically, and to notice shortly the interesting 

 facts which the science of entomology reveals to 

 us as to the egg-cradles, so to speak, of insects, 

 by which is meant the various localities selected 

 by them for the deposition of their eggs, some of 

 them, as we have mentioned, in the water, some in 

 the earth, some upon plants and trees, and some 

 in mansions made by the insects themselves for the 

 purpose of hatching their eggs. 



Let us come, then, and watch the great water- 

 beetle, at the time when the mother-insect is 

 about to commit her future offspring to the care 

 of the waters. She is to be found on fine days, 

 when the sun is going down into a bed of gold, 

 enjoying herself and delighting in the pleasant air 

 of the evening, as she sits upon a plant close by 

 the water's edge ; or she may even have taken up 

 her position on a floating leaf of the plant, the clear 

 waters flowing gently beneath her. She has been 

 in the water all day long, and is now just emerged. 



