236 MASK OF THE LARVA. 



furnished with a most remarkable apparatus attached 

 to the lower lip. It resembles a mask of singular 

 construction, and is used, not only for seizing the 

 prey, but also for holding it while the jaws perform 

 their customary office. * But you may, perhaps, 

 inquire, how comes it that the larva is found in the 

 water, while the perfect insect dwells in the air, 

 sports in the sunshine, and is the constant denizen 

 of an element so different from that in which it for- 

 merly dwelt ? You may ask, how, and under what 

 circumstances, are the eggs deposited, so that the en- 

 closed young may, on their exclusion, be surrounded 

 by the fluid in which the first stage of their existence 

 is to be passed ? I am glad, from the accurate obser- 

 vation of Mr. B. J. Clarke, to be able to answer 

 this question. He has, on several occasions this sum- 

 mer (1835), seen the male and female dragon-fly alight 

 on some of the aquatic plants in the canal adjoining 

 his residence, having exhibited, while in the air, the 

 strange appearance of one body, with a head at each 

 extremity ; a phenomenon which may have attracted 

 your attention. The male would then fling himself 

 into the air and fly away. The female adopted a 

 different course. She deliberately turned her head 



* For a most lucid description of this instrument, see Kirby and 

 Spence, vol. iii. p. 125. 



