THE FOOD OF INSECTS 80 



Lastly, in the higher animals the appetite for a flesh 

 diet acquired in the sea persists after the change to 

 fresh water, and thence to land, has been accomplished, 

 and it is only as the result of a happy and complex 

 combination — good grinders and strong digestion — that 

 the power of assimilating sufficient vegetable food 

 has been acquired by the Herbivora. We may now 

 consider how these habits have conduced to the 

 welfare of land animals. 



Insects show well the strain of life. The most 

 primitive are feeders on moulds and lichens ; the most 

 degraded are parasites — fixed sucking animals ; the 

 most highly organised are pre-eminently active sucking 

 creatures. 



As the tiger is a lord among mammals, so is the 

 tiger-beetle among the huge tribe which his name 

 heads ; and no more ferocious, active, or bloodthirsty 

 beetle exists. From his youth up the two curved 

 jaws that signalise his ferocity are in constant employ 

 in attack, as he beats up and down hot roads and sandy 

 commons, quartering the ground in arrowy darts 

 from fly to fly. 



The dragon-fly is an equally dominant member 

 of its tribe, and in brilliancy, power of flight, and 

 rapacity is perhaps supreme amongst insects. Sup- 

 ported throughout life on a flesh diet, it represents to 

 many another fly the long arm of circumstance. The 

 dragon-fly attacks its prey with equal celerity on the 

 ground or in the air, and, as it possesses both excellent 

 sight and flexible lips and a strong pair of jaws, it is 



