260 THE SCORPION-FLY. 



of tbeir respective sizes and apparent powers, you will hardly 

 admit the possibility that when opposed in single combat the 

 latter should come off victor. Yet thus it stands recorded in 

 the chronicles of insect doings, wherein, on good authority, it 

 is written that the tyrant of our lakes and pools (cowardly as 

 tyrants are wont to be) is terrified even at sight of a scorpion 

 fly assailant. One of these valorons pygmies is related by 

 Lyonnet to have attacked, in his presence, a dragon-fly ten 

 times its own size to have brought it to the ground, pierced it 

 with its sharp proboscis, and have left it with life only through 

 the interference of the naturalist spectator. 



This insect " hero of a thousand fights" bears in his tail a 

 formidable-looking, sting-like weapon, which might seem 

 mainly instrumental to victory in such unequal combats ; but 

 dangerous as this may appear, his nasal dagger, or stiletto, does 

 him, we believe, the most good service both in attack and 

 demolition of his bulky foes. He doubtless, however, finds a 

 use for the appendage at his tail, and albeit we have found it 

 harmless within our capturing grasp, its bearer owes the name 

 of " Scorpion-fly" to its great resemblance outwardly to the 

 deadly sting of the scorpion of tropic climates. 



From May to November these pretty flies are everywhere 

 common upon hedges and in gardens, where, with predacious 

 activity, they make cruel sport under the summer sun, cooling 

 down, with advance of autumn, into a milder state of com- 

 parative inactivity, which renders them an easy prey alike to 

 bird and entomologist. 



Last, in our trio of "the fair and fierce," but for either 

 attribute not least, comes the beautiful green and golden-eyed 

 lace-winged day fly 1 like the daisy (day's eye), loving sunny 

 weather, and the most elegant perhaps of all insects upon which 

 the sun (in Britain) ever shines wanting only augmented bulk 

 to render it an object of universal admiration. 



The form of the " lace-wing" is always graceful whether 



1 Hemerolius (vignette.) 



