LECTURE IX. Ill 



Dragon-Fly, or Libellula varia. It is a large and 

 beautiful Insect, seen chiefly towards the decline 

 of summer, principally in the neighbourhood of 

 watry places ; it has a very large head, with con- 

 spicuous eyes, large transparent wings, with black 

 veins, and a very long body, richly variegated 

 with blue and black. It is of a very rapacious 

 nature and preys on the smaller insects, but is 

 perfectly destitute of any sting as vulgarly sup- 

 posed, and is incapable of injuring any of the 

 larger animals. It proceeds from a larve which 

 inhabits the water, and is of a very peculiar and 

 unpleasant form. During its larve state, which 

 continues at least two years, it is as rapacious 

 as when in its complete form, preying on the 

 smaller kind of Water- Insects. When the period 

 is arrived at which it is to give birth to the 

 Dragon-Fly, it ascends the stem of some water 

 plant, and by a few efforts, breaks open the skin 

 of the back, when the enclosed Dragon-Fly gra- 

 dually liberates itself from its confinement; its 

 wings which are at first very short, tender, and 

 contracted, gradually expanding themselves to 

 their full size, like those of a Butterfly when 

 newly emerged from its chrysalis. In the space 



