208 THE PANORPINA. 



formed, which is often of a most delicate texture, the 

 insect passes into the pupa state, in which it remains 

 a longer or shorter time according to the season; 

 those individuals which attain their maturity early 

 in the summer appearing in the perfect state the 

 same season, whilst those which do not spin their 

 cocoons until the autumn, remain quietly ensconced 

 in their silken beds until the genial weather of the 

 following May or June calls them to resume their 

 active life. 



Throughout the summer, if we walk slowly along, 

 inspecting the rank herbage which springs from the 

 damp banks of ditches, we can scarcely fail to meet 

 with a singular insect, about two-thirds of an inch in 

 length, the Panorpa communis, the slender tapering 

 abdomen of which is turned up, and armed with a 

 pair of forceps, giving it at the first glance a most 

 threatening resemblance to that of a Scorpion, from 

 which circumstance the name of the Scorpion-fly is 

 commonly applied to it. Unlike that dreaded Ara- 

 chnidan, however, the Panorpa, formidable as its caudal 

 armature may appear, is a perfectly harmless insect, 

 and as the forceps is peculiar to the male, it is pro- 

 bably connected with the amours of the creatures. 

 The general colour of the Scorpion-fly is black, but 

 the sides of the thorax, some spots on its upper sur- 

 face, and the whole of the legs are yellow, or reddish- 

 yellow; the four narrow, equal, and nearly trans- 

 parent wings are traversed by numerous brown veins, 

 and rather elegantly spotted with brown. In the 

 male the first five segments of the slender abdomen 

 are almost entirely black; the sixth and seventh, 

 which are thinner than their predecessors, and more 



