LECTURE IX. 
Ill 
Dragon-Fly, or Libdlula mria. It is a large and 
beautiful Insect, seen chiefly towards the decline 
of summer, principally in the neighbourhood of 
watry places ; it has a very large head, with con- 
spicuous eyes, large transparent wings, with black 
veins, and a very long body, richly variegated 
with blue and black. It is of a very rapacious 
nature and preys on the smaller insects, but is 
perfectly destitute of any sting as vulgarly sup- 
posed, and is incapable of injuring any of the 
larger animals. It proceeds from a larve which 
inhabits the water, and is of a very peculiar and 
unpleasant form. During its larve state, which 
continues at least two years, it is as rapacious 
as when in its complete form, preying on the 
smaller kind of Water- In sects. When the period 
is arrived at which it is to give birth to the 
Dragon-Fly, it ascends the stem of some water 
plant, and by a few efforts, breaks open the skin 
of the back, when the enclosed Dragon-Fly gra- 
dually liberates itself from its confinement ; its 
wings which are at first very short, tender, and 
contracted, gradually expanding themselves to 
their full size, like those of a Butterfly when 
newly emerged from its chrysalis. In the space 
