148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



are quickly snapped up by the -watcliful dragonfly, who tears 

 off the lean and useless wings, and makes a rich repast on the 

 plump body of his victim. It would be perhaps considered 

 unnecessary to advert here to the childish tradition of the terrific 

 effects of the dragonfly on the human system, namely: its alleged 

 powers of sewing up the eyes, and of stinging men and animals, 

 were it not that an immense amount of ignorance yet exists 

 concerning some of the most common objects of nature. With 

 regard to the useful and graceful creatures of this group we 

 should rather consider them as benefactors, knowing that they 

 arc incapable of injuring ourselves or our domestic animals, 

 and that the powerful mandibles, and sharp claws with which 

 they are armed, are only terrible to our enemies, the moths 

 and butterflies. These, we have been taught in our early 

 years to admire and protect : strong admonitions to abstain 

 from injuring or destroying the " beautiful butterfly " are 

 impressed on the minds of children ; but science has proved 

 that the beautiful butterfly is the parent of the noxious and 

 repulsive " worm " or caterpillar, and capable of producing 

 some thousands of these at a birth. It may be here stated as 

 a well ascertained and authenticated fact that there is not one 

 of our native moths or butterflies but what is more or less 

 injurious to the agriculturist. The thousands of species known 

 to science subsist on vegetable food with scarce a dozen 

 exceptions, and these destroy furs, woollen clothing and other 

 household property, consume the wax in our bee-hives, or the 

 grease and lard of the kitchen ; the si/k-irorm moth, to which 

 we are indebted for so many articles of dress and adornment, is 

 not only a foreign species but also a vegetable feeder like the 

 majority, and the only one from which we receive any direct 

 benefits. 



To return to tlic dragonflies, however, their eggs, which are 

 laid near the surface, beneath the water, hatch, not into winged 

 insects like the jjarcnt, but into oddly-shaped animals, which 

 are chiefly rcmarkal)lc for their maxked mouth, and the power 

 of moving by means of a jet of water expelled from the tail. 

 They i)ass most of their lives during the larva stage in crawling 

 4ibout upon the bottom and feeding upon other ac^uatic insects 

 or even small fish ; after some months they become full grown, 

 having changed tiieir skin many times, and now are in the 



