DRAGON-FLIES. 539 
twenty-four hours. The eggsare carried off by the workers as soon as laid, 
and conveyed to suitable places in the nest, where they are guarded until 
they are hatched, and are then fed and watched until they have passed 
through their preliminary stages of existence, 
The great bulk of a Termite establishment is composed of workers, who 
outnumber the soldiers in the proportion of a hundred to one. By the 
mysterious instinct which is implanted in these insects, the soldiers and 
workers confine themselves to their respective occupation, the former doing 
nothing but fight and the latter nothing but labour. 
There are many species of Termite, and all are fearfully destructive, being, 
indeed, the greatest pest of the country wherein they reside. Nothing, 
unless cased in metal, can resist their jaws; and they have been known to 
destroy the whole woodwork of a house in a single season. They always 
work in darkness, and at all expenditure of labour keep themselves under 
cover, so that their destructive labours are often completed before the least 
irtimation has been given. For example, the Termites will bore through the 
boards of a floor, drive their tunnels up the legs of the tables or chairs, 
consume everything but a mere shell no thicker than paper, and yet leave 
everything apparently in a perfect condition . Many a person has only 
learned the real state of his furniture by finding a chair crumble into dust as 
he sat upon it, or a whole staircase fall to pieces as soon as a foot was set 
uponit. In some cases the Termite lines its galleries with clay, which soon 
becomes as hard as stone, and thereby produces very remarkable archi- 
tectural changes. Tor example, it has been found that a row of wooden 
columns in front of a house have been converted into stone pillars by these 
insects. 
PASSING by several families of the Neuroptera, we come to the 
Libellulidze, or DRAGON-FLIES. These insects are very familiar to us by 
means of the numerous Dragon-flies which haunt our river sides, and which 
are known to the rustics by the very inappropriate name of Horse-stingers, 
they possessing no sting and never meddling with horses. The name of 
DRAGON-ELY, on the contrary, is perfectly appropriate, as these insects are 
indeed the dragons of the air, far more voracious and active than even the 
fabled dragons of antiquity. 
Even in their preliminary stages the Dragon-flies preserve their predatory 
habits, and for that purpose are armed in a most remarkable manner. 
During the larval and pupal states the Dragon-fly is an inhabitant of the 
water, and may be found in most of our streams, usually haunting the muddy 
banks, and propelling itself along by an apparatus as efficacious as it is 
simple, and exactly analogous to the mode by which the nautilus forces itself 
through the water. The respiration is carried on by means of the oxygen 
which is extracted from the water; and the needful supply. of liquid is 
allowed to pass into and out of the body through a large aperture at the 
end of the tail. 
Such are its means of locomotion ; those of attack are not less remarkable 
or less efficacious. 
The lower lip, instead of being a simple cover to the mouth, is developed 
into a strange-jointed organ, which can be shot out to the distance of nearly 
an inch; or, when at rest, can be folded flat over the face, much as a 
carpenter’s rule can be stut up so as to fit into his pocket, and can be rapidly 
protruded or withdrawn very like the instrument called a “ lazy-tongs.” Like 
that instrument, it is furnished at its extremity with a pair of forceps, and is 
able to grasp at passing objects with the swiftness and certainty of a serpent’s 
stroke. 
The creature remains for some ten or eleven months in the preliminary 
