DKAGON-FLIES. 

 CHAPTER I. 



THEIR LIFE HISTORY. 



T^TEVER was a more appropriate name than that of 

 -^ Dragon-fly, which has been applied to a well-known 

 group of insects. Like the dragons of fable, the dragon- 

 flies are ever voracious, powerful, strong-jawed, fierce, 

 and swifter in air than on land. But the dragon-flies are 

 even more terrible than the dragons, for they have been 

 dragons of the water as well as of land, and pursued their 

 prey beneath the waves as swiftly as through the air. 

 There are many destructive creatures in the world which 

 feed upon living prey, but there are none which are 

 more voracious or destructive than the dragon-flies. 



The life of a dragon-fly may be divided into two 

 unequal parts, the longer portion of its existence being 



