The Dragon-fly. 



97 



has enormous compound eyes, that meet on the top of his 

 head. His antennae are only two little bristles. 



The abdomen has ten rings. It has a very small 

 egg-layer. 



The horn; ridges on the aeoond and third rings, one of which is 

 seen in Fig. 1, may lead pnpils to oonnt twelve rings instead of ten, 

 bnt by comparison with the satarea between the rings, the ridges 

 are seen not to be true sntnres. 



All the rings of the thorax can be seen on the back of 



the dragon-fly. The first ring is very small, but the 



second and third rings are large because they carry those 



great wings. The wings are beautifully veined. There 



are long, straight veins on the 



front margin, and the rest of 



the wing is net-veined. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



As the dragon-fly never alights, bat always hangs by the second 

 and third pairs of feet, the legs are drawn forward and the rings of 

 the thorax inclined in the same direction. A voracioas eater, the 

 deadly enemy of gnats and moEqnitoes, the dragon-fly mnst catch 

 its food " on the flf." For this purpose, see its immense compound 

 eyes, literally "on all sides of its head" ; the head itself so loosely 

 hnng that it can be turned in any direction, or thrown backward 

 till it touches the second ting of the thorax, while the first ring of 

 the thorax moves so freely that the first pair of legs, used only for 

 seizing prey, can readily follow the rapid motions of the head. 



Grasping the head and thorax of the dragon-fly firmly, 

 and looking at the head from in front, as shown in Fig. 2, 

 we see a little horny projection in front of the compound 



