92 INSECTS 



any terrestrial forms. The adults have the wings 

 covered with fine hair and some of the small forms 

 resemble Tineid moths so closely that they are con- 

 fused with them. It is believed, indeed, that this is 

 the direct ancestral form of the Lepidoptera. 



And now comes the order Odonata, containing the 

 dragon flies, large and small and all of them predatory 

 in habit in all stages. As larvae they are aquatic, living 

 in ponds, streams or even the more permanent pools 



FIG. 39. Dragon fly and its development: larva and pupa feeding at i and 

 3; 2, nymph ready to change; 4, pupa skin from which 5, the adult, has emerged. 



and puddles; some of them active, moving about 

 freely among the vegetation, others sluggish, lying in 

 the soft bottom mud or under stones or other shelter, 

 waiting for things to come their way. They are pecu- 

 liarly adapted by their elongated hinged under lip, 

 or labium, to reach such small creatures as fate may 

 send within half an inch of them and, with a little for- 

 ward jerk of . the body and a rapid extension of the 

 armed labium, the prey is seized. This prey varies in 

 character according to the habits of the larvae. Some 

 of the more active forms destroy a large number of 



