600 



NEUROPTERA. 



the surface, but I never saw what I could assert to be the pro- 

 jecting of the eggs from the body upon plants or into the 

 water. The English entomologists assert that the female 

 Agrion goes below the surface to a depth of several inches to 

 deposit eggs upon the submerged stems of plants." The 

 Agrions, however, according to Lacaze-Duthiers, a 

 French anatomist, make with the ovipositor a little 

 notch in the plant upon which they lay their eggs. 



These eggs hatch during the middle of the sum- 

 mer, and the young larva (Fig. 62) when first hatched 

 differs from the more mature larva (Fig. 580), in not 

 Fig. 580. Caving the rudiments of wings, and in the long, 

 spider-like legs. The larva is very active in its habits, being 

 provided with six legs attached to the thorax, on the back of 

 which, after the first one or two moults, are the little wing- 

 pads, or rudimentary wings. The large head is provided 



with enormous eyes, while a pair of 

 simple, minute eyelets (ocelli) are 

 placed near the origin of the small 

 bristle-like feelers, or antennae. 

 Seen from beneath, instead of the 

 formidable array of jaws and ac- 

 cessory organs commonly observed 

 in most carnivorous larvae, we see 

 nothing but a broad, smooth mask 

 covering the lower part of the face, 

 but when some unwary insect comes 

 within striking distance the battery 

 of jaws is unmasked, and opens 

 upon the victim. This mask (Fig. 

 581, under side of head of a dragon- 

 fly larva, with the labium fully ex- 

 tended ; a?, a?', a", the three subdivi- 

 sions ; y\ maxillae. For other details 

 of the head of the larva of Diplax, 

 see p. 60) is peculiar to the young, 

 or larva and pupa, of the dragon-fly. It is the labium, or under 

 lip greatly enlarged, and armed at the broad spoon-shaped 

 extremity (x) with two sharp hooks, adapted for seizing and 



581. 



