62 INSECT LIFE IN POND AND STREAM 



like a bumble bee, was once upon. a time a 

 water baby and a very strange one too 



The larva of the Drone-fly is called the 

 " Rat-tailed maggot." It is found in quite 

 shallow, muddy pools and ditches. In shape, 

 this strange little larva is very much like a 

 small roly-poly pudding, with a very long, 

 thin tail, and as it is almost as clear and 

 transparent as glass, it is not at all easy to 

 find it. It generally rests or creeps about 

 on the mud at the bottom of the pool, with 

 its funny tail sticking straight up, so that 

 the tip, through which it breathes, is just 

 above the water. 



It is the most surprising tail in the world ; 

 it consists of two tubes, fitting one within the 

 other like a telescope, and it alters in length 

 according to the depth of the pool in which the 

 little Rat-tailed maggot is living. If the pool 

 is two inches deep the tail will be two inches 

 long a most astonishing length for a little 

 creature not much more than half an inch 

 long. But should rain fall, and the pool 

 grow deeper, this obliging tail grows longer 

 still to meet the case. Three, four, five, even 

 five and a half inches this remarkable tail will 

 stretch, but then it seems to have reached its 



