254 PRESH-WATBR AQUARIA. 



and pupsB of Dragon-flies are very easy to keep in confine- 

 ment, giving little or no trouble. They will eat various 

 aquatic animals, such as tadpoles, water-worms, tiny fish, 

 Oorixse, Notonectse, &c. ; and when these fail they will con- 

 tent themselves with garden- worms. The water in which 

 they live, if they are carefully supplied with food, will remain 

 perfectly bright and clear. Several of these insects will agree 

 together, and they wiU not be guilty of cannibalism unless 

 they are starved. I have hardly ever known them die, though 

 I have kept very many in confinement. The larvae and 

 pupse of the JEschnidce are, I think, the most suitable of 

 their kind to keep in confinement. It is supposed that these 

 insects live from one to three years, according to their 

 sj)ecies, before they become perfect Dragon-flies. 



The members of the lEphemeridce (Day-flies) family of the 

 Neuroptera are chiefly remarkable for the extreme shortness 

 of their lives when they attain the imago or perfect state. 

 Some of them, when they have reached that condition, only 

 live for a few hours — being bom, so to speak, after sunset 

 and dying before sunrise ; while the longest-livers, the patri- 

 archs of the family, exist but for a day or two as a mle, 

 though in captivity it is said that they have been kept alive 

 for a week or even more. Appropriately, then, are they named 

 EphemeridtB — beings whose length of life is limited to a day. 

 The larvae of these insects, however, live from one to three 

 years, according to their species. 



Day-flies, or rather May-flies, as they are commonly called, 

 are very deUcate-looking creatures, generally possessing four 

 minutely-reticulated wings and two or three extremely long 

 setcB, or tail filaments. The hinder pair of wings are very 

 much smaller than the former pair, and sometimes are wanting 

 altogether. These insects, owing to the lack of development 

 in the organs of the mouth, seem incapable of taking food of 

 any kind whatever. Their antennae are very short and awl- 

 shaped, and their fore-legs are very often extremely long. 

 The males are distinguished by two curious appendages affixed 

 to the last segment but one of their body, by the great elon- 

 gation of their fore-legs, and by the " vip-and-down " manner 



