43° THE WATER SCORPIO??. 



tjrann'cal ; thej deilroy, like wolves among fiieep, 

 twenty times as many as tlieir hunger requires. If one 

 of tlifcin is placed in a bafon of water with thirty or forty 

 worms of the libellula, each as large as itfelf, it will de- 

 flroy tliem all in a very fhort fpace, getting on their 

 backs, and piercing them through the body with its roll- 

 rum *. 



Thefe animals, though they live upon the water by 

 day, are capable of talking long flights from one pool to 

 another in quell of food : This they are probably often 

 obliged to attempt, from the fiercenefs of their manners, 

 by which the infects in their vicinity muft be foon de- 

 flroyed. Though fo formidable to other crea'ures, they 

 are neverthelefs liaunted by a little loufe, which probably 

 repays the injuries which the water fcorpion fo frequent- 

 ly commits upon others. 



The cinereous fcorpion is the moH; common infect of 

 this tribe : The head is fmall, and as it were funk in a 

 dope of the thorax ; the elytra are broad, crofs each 

 other, and cover almoit the vi'hole abdomen : In the fe- 

 males, the extremity is furnidied with two appendices, 

 equal to three fourths of its length, 



• Goldfmltii's Mat. Hiil. Vol. VII. p. 56®« 



