TYPICAL INSECTS 177 



search of their prey. The bees are busily gathering both 

 nectar and pollen, and are dusty as millers with the golden 

 pollen grains which they brush off against other flowers, 

 thereby effecting a very essential process, that of pollination, 

 which is necessary for seed formation. Bumble-bees are 

 drowsily humming past or are half-buried in the depths of 

 some flower's corolla. Here, perhaps, in a hole in the bluff 

 along the roadside, or in a tree, we find the paper nest of 

 the yellow jacket or hornet, which we had better let alone. 

 In the grass and along the dusty road, we see the active and 

 nimble tiger-beetles and other predaceous beetles, running 

 about looking for some smaller insect which they may de- 

 vour. In the footpaths along the road we see many little 

 ant-hills, and it would pay us to pause and observe the little 

 workers. In the grass we may find a large mound made by 

 the larger ants, and if we open this we may see the eggs and 

 cocoons carried hastily away by the frightened workers. In 

 the tall elm or cotton wood trees along the road, we hear the 

 cicada, sounding like a miniature alarm clock running down. 

 We are lucky if we find the insect. 



A visit to the pond will show us various aquatic insects. 

 Flying over or about the pond are the gauzy-winged dragon- 

 flies, mayflies, damselflies, and stoneflies, and myriads of 

 mosquitoes. Their larval stages will be found by dredging 

 with a net on the muddy bottom of the pond. By lifting up 

 submerged sticks, leaves, and stones we find water-tigers, 

 caddisworms, water-beetles, etc. By dragging the dip-net 

 along the bottom of the pond, along water-plants and over 

 submerged sticks and stones, turning out the contents and 

 examining the mud, we shall find the large and the small 

 electric-light bugs, the predaceous water-beetle, the water- 



