LARVA AND DRAGON-FLY. 259 



groping in the mire, or swimming through the water of the 

 pond over which he subsequently soars, he exhibits the same 

 savage propensities, only modified by form and situation. He 

 is, in short, " a murderer from the beginning," distinguished 

 for remarkable rapacity, with endowments yet more remarkable 

 for its gratification. These we have already noticed under our 

 head of " water- devils," amongst which, while a grub or larva, 

 the dragon-fly figures as a very Beelzebub. In the present 

 month (August), and on to October, the large green dragon- 

 fly 1 is commonly seen on the wing, in sunshine, near streams 

 and hedges, or found resting, of an evening, on water-plants 

 or low bushes. 



We have spoken of the dragon-fly's four powerful pinions 

 as always open, in readiness for flight. This is generally the 

 case with the families of ^Eshna and Libellula ; but in some, 

 the wings, when at rest, are applied to the body, as in the 

 instance of a very common but very pretty little species, 2 with 

 bodies variously coloured (as blue and black red and black 

 green and black) which are, in most places, numerous over 

 ditches in May arid June ; in which months another species 

 (the large black and yellow), is also not uncommon. About 

 two hundred different kinds are said to haunt the woods and 

 streams of Britain. 



From the dragon-fly the above redoubtable giant among 

 English insects we come, by no very abrupt transition, except 

 in the great difference of their bulk, to the scorpion-fly, 3 a lesser 

 but no less striking specimen of the ' fair and fierce." It 

 would even seem that with reference to the quality of fierce- 

 ness, or more properly of valour, this latter insect is well 

 worthy of precedence over its bulkier class-fellow, of which, 

 being invariably the foe, it is not unfrequently the conqueror. 

 Only look at these enemies by nature, the great dragon and 

 the little scorpion flies, in juxta-position, and, on comparison 



1 Figured with its puparium in the Vignette to " COMING OUT." 



2 Of this is the insect figured in Vignette. 3 Panorpa, also in Vignette. 



C C 



