410 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



" Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, 

 Your house is on fire, your children will burn ;" 



are in the larva state furious destroyers of other 

 insects, and will gobble up aphides by the score in 

 a very short time. The dragon-fly too stands 

 conspicuous among the insect devourers, not only 

 in its larva but in its perfect condition, and falls 

 upon multitudes of insects, plucking off their 

 wings, and with savage relish devouring their 

 bodies. We are not, however, to suppose that the 

 appetites of carnivorous insects are confined to 

 insect -food. The blow fly lives upon and defiles 

 by depositing its eggs in our butcher's meat. The 

 cockroach will polish a bone as clean as, or cleaner 

 than, any dog will, and, indeed, will consume 

 almost anything that happens to come in its way. 

 Lastly, we may not omit to mention, that some 

 insects have to plunge their armed mouths into 

 our flesh and that of other animals, and to slake 

 their raging thirst in a draught of our life-blood : 

 among which we will only enumerate the mus- 

 quito, the gnat, and the flea. We need scarcely 

 say, that insects are provided with proper organs 

 of digestion. 



Singular to add, some insects in the perfect 



