20 INSECT LIFE IN POND AND STREAM 

 CHAPTER III 



SOME ODD INSECTS 



IF you watch the surface of a pond very care- 

 fully you may often see something that looks 

 like a tiny bit of stick, no thicker than a 

 needle, floating on the water. Look closer 

 and you will see that this " stick " has six 

 legs as fine as hairs, and is not floating but 

 walking on the top of the pond. 



This is the " Water Stick- 

 insect," and a very strange 

 insect it is to be sure. It 

 has a long thin head and a 

 long thin body, and where 

 one ends and the other be- 

 gins is really difficult to tell, 

 for it is just about the same 

 thickness all the way up. 



This peculiar insect spends 

 A WATER STICK-INSECT. &s time creeping slowly 

 about on the top of the 

 water, on the look-out for the little dead 

 insects which often float on the surface of the 

 pond. On these the Water Stick-insect feeds, 



