CHAPTER V. 



WATER-TIGERS. 



" Let 's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs " 



Richard II. 



IN April one may find in this brook the nearly 

 full-grown Iarva3 of those beetles known as the 

 Water - tigers, or Dytiscidm. These 

 larvae are ferocious creatures, as the 

 children of water -tigers well might be. 

 They are strong and slender, furnished at 

 one end of the body with a 

 flat head marked with six 

 ocelli and armed with a 

 pair of sharp jaws like 



Larva of Dytiscus marginalis. Scissors, and at the other 



end by two breathing gills 



which they keep uppermost as they dart head 

 downward through the water. Armed with his 

 pair of shears, the gray-yellowish, two-inch-long 

 larva goes forth to prune the animal world. Is 

 that a polliwog? Let us snip off his tail. It is 

 too long. Or, if that cannot be accomplished, let 

 us at least hold on to the polliwog till we have 

 sucked him dry of juice. 



