EXTRAORDINARY APPARATUS. 121 



means of the plates, which we have compared to 

 the hand, the victim is caught, and bending the 

 arm back, is presented to the mouth of the larva. 

 There is much similarity in this organ with the 

 wonderful apparatus of the elephant called its 

 trunk ; but of the two, the trunk of this insect is 

 the most beautiful piece of animal mechanism. 

 When the prey has 

 been devoured, the 

 arm folds up, co- 

 vers the mouth and 

 part of the face of 

 the insect, and the 

 blinders, or two 

 side pieces of the The apparatus in the act of seising - 



mask, fall in, and lock together in a toothed 

 manner, as the engraving in the last page shows. 



Thus provided, the larva is a formidable crea- 

 ture to the inhabitants of the pond or brook ; few, 

 indeed, more so. It preys with incessant activity 

 on all aquatic insects that happen to come in its 

 way, and sometimes, as we have said, even upon 

 tadpoles. They do not even spare one another, and 

 woe to the unhappy relative of the family who 

 happens to wander near the abode of another of the 



