54 PLAT By xxl’. 
have not, however, as is commonly believed, any other power over 
that noble and ufeful animal than to alarm him, by fluttering round 
him when he feeks the water to refrefh himfelf in hot or fultry 
weather. Among the infeét race the Libellule are indeed mif- 
chievous, and feem to occupy among them the fame ftation as the 
vulture tribe among the feathered part of the creation: they attack 
all with ferocity, and deftroy more for the fake of {port than the 
voracity of their appetites can poffibly require as food. 
The Fly appears on the wing in May and June, in almoft every | 
marfhy fituation: the female lays her eggs near the roots of ofiers on 
the banks of ditches, or finks them into the ftalks of rufhes ftanding 
in the water: they hatch, and an ugly apterous infect, of a brown 
colour, comes forth: it has a long body like the Fly, fix legs, a 
forked head, a fharp {pine at the extremity of the abdomen, and a: 
sow of {pines on each fide, one at every joint. This creature im- 
mediately on being hatched plunges into the water, and proceeds to 
devour fuch of the inhabitants or their eggs as come within its reach, 
and it continues this life of depredation, through the pupa as well as 
larva ftate. Infe€ts of this kind are to be caught by means of a fmall 
hand net; in the winged ftate they are taken with difficulty, as they 
fly, or rather dart, with a degree of velocity that renders all purfuit 
fruitlefs, fhould they evade the firft attempt of the colleétor to 
capture them. 
PLATS 
