258 THE BUTTERFLY'S ARCH-ENEMY. 



the round enormous head nearly the whole of its upper 

 half occupied by large prominent eyes, which, in their crystal- 

 line transparency, differ remarkably from the generality of 

 visual organs among insects, with their lifeless appearance of 

 dull opacity. In these there is no lack of vivid expression, as 

 the numerous hexagons of which they are composed seem to be 

 for ever in motion, now appearing visible, then seeming lost 

 beneath their translucent common covering or cornea. With 

 the threatening animation of these rapacious-looking eyes, the 

 mouth and powerful jaws are in formidable accordance; and 

 if, in the sight of its insect victims, this veritable dragon of 

 their tribes wears anything like the aspect he bears in ours 

 (his terrors magnified by superior size, and perhaps, also, by 

 instinctive dread), with what trepidation must defenceless case- 

 flies flee before him, and what a panic must be created by 

 his very shadow amongst a bevy of white-robed butterflies, 

 when assembled, according to their wont, in a water-drinking 

 party round a pond. Well may ye tremble, ye harmless 

 sippers, at the approach of this, your arch-destroyer, as ye 

 catch the sound of his rapid flight audible, perhaps, to your 

 delicate antennae, though silent to our coarser ears ! Well may 

 ye rise in terror and confusion, when ye behold his terrible 

 image reflected, with your own fair forms, upon the surface of 

 the liquid mirror at your feet ! But little will your feathered 

 wings avail you when matched in flight against his bare and 

 nervous pinions. Whether you await or endeavour to escape 

 "him whether at rest or in the air he will pounce upon you, 

 tear off, without mercy, your painted pinions ; and, when re- 

 duced to a disfigured mutilated trunk, bear you off in triumph 

 to the first convenient resting-place some bough or paling 

 there to glut his maw upon your honied juices, while repose 

 gives him new vigour for the pursuit and massacre of others of 

 your race ! 



Such is the dragon-fly in his form of maturity, and, even 

 in his earliest stage that of a crawling, wingless grub, 



