THE WATER-BEETLE. 359 



hooked. These it can close with great force, and if 

 they meet with no resisting substance too hard for them 

 to penetrate, they can cross each other. It takes a very 

 firm hold with them ; for when a pond was in progress 

 of being cleaned, we have seen those larvae drawn out, 

 hanging by the pincers to an iron shovel. 



It is possible that the larvae of the plunger are more 

 voracious than the full-grown beetle ; for they eat 

 every thing that they are able to seize ; and no sooner 

 have they sucked the juices of one victim than they 

 assail another. A portion of stagnant water, in which 

 these and other insects and larvae are contained, when 

 exhibited by a good solar microscope, is a singular 

 spectacle, and with only the difference of size, records 

 one of the ravages of a lion in a flock, or that of a shark 

 or grampus in the ocean. Indeed it is much more a 

 scene of slaughter; for the quadruped and the fish, 

 after they have gorged themselves full, must pause 

 and allow some time for digestion and the assimilation 

 of the solid matter of the prey with that of their own 

 bodies ; and in the case of the lion, at least, that is a 

 work of labour and lassitude. But the larva drains 

 only the juices which appear to pass to its own sub- 

 stance without any after process of assimilation ; so that 

 one victim only whets its appetite for a fresh one. 

 The microscope, of course, magnifies the velocity in 

 the same ratio as the size, and thus while an apparent 

 length of three or four feet, and a correspondence of 

 breadth is given, the assailant shoots from side to 

 side of the field of view in the microscope, with the 

 rapidity of lightning ; and when he seizes and shakes 

 his victims, the size, the distance, and especially the 



