ORDER V. NET- WINGED INSECTS. 223 



morphosis, the larvae climb up the stem of some water- 

 plant, and in about two hours after are capable of raising 

 themselves up by their wings and flying away in the air. 

 This whole operation may be witnessed by putting the 

 grubs into a pail of water, and placing in it some sticks or 

 branches upon which they may creep up and prepare them- 

 selves for their aerial journeys. Fig. 60 represents one of 

 these grubs, a larva of the JEshna grandis. 



As soon as their wings are 

 dry they fly away with the 

 same rapidity and with the 

 same design as birds of prey, 

 making hundreds of evolu- 

 tions, up and down, upon the 

 banks of rivers, ponds, and 

 brooks, or sailing over gar- 

 dens and meadows, and along 

 the fences and shrubs, seek- 

 ing something to eat. 



The manner of their copulation is also very curious. The 

 taale fastens the extremity of the hind body, which some- 

 what resembles a pair of pinchers, to the neck of the fe- 

 male, and thus united together, one behind the other, they 

 fly about for hours. The female afterward deposits her 

 eggs, which are very small and white, upon the surface of 

 the water, where they sink to the bottom, and in course of 

 time are hatched by the caloric of the atmosphere. 



The WATER-MOTH (Pht^yganea) is another very interest- 

 ing genus of this order, which also has its birth-place in the 

 water, but which is not so rapacious and cannibal-like in 

 its habits. Its larva? are very numerous, look like cater- 

 pillars, and live in the water, breathing by means of gills. 

 They metamorphose into moth-like insects, having pendant 

 wings, very small and transparent. 



As these larvae are not able to swim, during their abode 



