62 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



able tenement, to tlie great discomfort, as we 

 may readily imagine, of the poor water-snails. 



Most aquatic Iarva3 spend the pupal period in 

 the water, and only emerge therefrom when 

 they are ready to pass into the perfect or winged 

 state. But the group to which our larva belongs 

 forms an exception to the general rule ; they leave 

 the water while they are still in the larva state, 

 and do not usually become pupte for several 

 days, or even weeks, thereafter. Nature, there- 

 fore, to meet the necessities of their varied 

 habitats, has given them a double system of 

 respiration — a set of gills to breathe with in the 

 water, and a set of brcatliing-hples, or spiracles, 

 to breathe with upon land. In our larva the 

 spiracles are placed in the usual manner along 

 the sides of the body, and the gills, which assume 

 the form of a pair of paddle-like appendages, 

 are placed one pair upon each of the seven front 

 joints of the belly. After it first leaves the 

 water, the larva crawls rapidly about iu the 

 night time to find a suitable place for its pupil 

 transformation, usually selecting for this, pur- 

 pose the under surface of a flat board or log, or 

 burrowing under some large stone. In pursuit 

 of this object they sometimes wander almost a 

 hundred feet from the water's edge ; and we 

 have known them to crawl iip the walls, and on 

 to the roof of a low one-stury frame building, 

 and then tumble accidentally down the chimney, 

 to the great dismay of tlic good woman of the 

 house. At this period of their existence they 

 are much sought after as fish-bait, having a very 

 tough integument, so that one" larva suffices to 

 catch several fish ; and they arc called by fisher- 

 men sometimes '" crawlers" and sometimes 

 '•hellgrammites." They can i>jii(.-li pretty sharply 

 with their strong jaws, though not sufficiently 

 hard to draw blood ;; aiid they also use the pro- 

 cesses at their tail as prehensile organs t<i aid 

 them in climbing. 



After it has selected a suitable hiding place, 

 the larva forms a rude cell in tlic eartli, within 

 which it transforms into an inactive pupa (Fig. 

 56 6), with no moiith to receive food, and no 

 anus to discharge ftcces. It usually leaves the 

 water about the beginning of June, and by the 

 end of that month or the forepart of Jul)' tlie 

 winged fly bursts from the shell of the pupa. 

 It should be remarked that, iu Figure oG b, the 

 wing-cases of the pupa are slightly spread apart 

 from its body to show their shape and structure, 

 but that in nature they are closely appressed, 

 though not agglutinated, as is the case with the 

 pupa of all butterflies and moths, to the side of 

 the body. 



The perfect Flics hide themselves in obscure 



holes and comers during the day, and fly only 

 by night, which is the reason that, though by no 

 means uncommon, tliey are so seldom noticed. 

 The male Fly (Fig. 5G c), is remarkable for hav- 

 ing its jaws enormously prolonged, in the form 

 of the finger of a cradle, and devoid of any teeth 

 or sharp knobbed excrescences, whereas botli 

 the female fly (Fig. 56 (7) and the larva (Fig. 

 56 a) have short robust jaws, armed with the 

 customary teeth, and suited for offensive or de- 

 fensive measures. In the well-known Buck-bug 

 or Stag-beetle {Lucanus elaphus, Linn.), on the 

 contrary, the elongate jaws of the male are 

 armed with sharp thorns and prongs. In botli 

 insects one use of these enormously long jaws, 

 exclnsively found in the male sex, is to seize the 

 body of the female and thereby facilitate the re- 

 production of the species. But tlie body of the 

 Hellgrammite Fly being in both sexes of a veiy 

 soft consistence. Nature saw that it was neces- 

 sary that the male should have his jaws whittled 

 off perfectly smooth, so as not to give pain to 

 the female he was seeking to embrace ; whereas, 

 in the case of the Buck-bug, where both sexes 

 are of a very hard and shelly consistence, the 

 elongate jaws of the male Were allowed to retain 

 the normal teeth, one of which teeth will be 

 noticed, in this species, to be strangely length- 

 [Fig.57.] ened and beveled in such a manner as 

 to fit in exactly under tl^e thorax of 

 the female and hold her as if in a vice. 

 In so elaborate and diversified a man- 

 ner docs Nature atlapt her plans and 

 patterns to the ever-varying conditions 

 of animated exigence, and vyith such 

 consummate care/Jias she.provided that 

 the great fundamcittal Law shall every- 

 where be efficiently carried out — " In- 

 crease and multiply and rcplcnisli the 

 earth."' 



The eggs of the llcllgranmiitc Fly 

 (Fig. 57) are oval, about the size of a 

 radish seed, and of a pale color, with 

 some dark markings. They arc usually deposited 

 in a squarish patch upon reeds or other aquatic 

 plants overhanging the water, whence, having 

 hatched out, the young larva finds a ready 

 passage into the element which it is destined to 

 inhabit until the end of tlic following spring. 

 ■\Vc liave known patches of eggs to be deposited 

 upon the windows of a floating daguerreotype 

 gallery on tlie Mississippi river. 



iJW" There are probably ten times as many 

 species of insects in the whole world, as of all 

 other animals put together. Hence the Ento- 

 mologist has no sinecure office. 



