282 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 
by De Geer, which indeed had previously been noticed, 
though cursorily, by the illustrious Frenchman*. There 
is a little larva, he observes, to be found at all seasons 
of the year, the depth of winter excepted, in stagnant 
waters, which keeps its body always doubled as it were 
in two, against the sides of ditches or the stalks of aqua- 
tic plants. If it is placed in a glass half full of water, it 
so fixes itself against the sides of it, that its head and 
tail are in the water while the remainder of the body is 
out of it; thus assuming the form of a siphon, the tail 
end being the longest. When this animal is disposed 
to feed, it lifts its head and places it horizontally on the 
surface of the water, so that it forms a right angle with 
the rest of the body, which always remains in a situation 
perpendicular to the surface. It then agitates, with vi- 
vacity, a couple of brushes, formed of hairs and fixed in 
the anterior part of the head, which producing a current 
towards the mouth, it makes its meal of the various spe- 
cies of animalcula, abounding in stagnant waters, that 
come within the vortex thus produced. As these ani- 
mals require to be firmly fixed to the substance on which 
they take their station, and their back is the only part, 
when they are doubled as just described, that can apply 
to it,—they are furnished with minute legs armed with 
-black claws, by which they are enabled to adhere to it. 
They have ten of these legs: the four anterior ones, 
which point towards the head and are distant from each 
other, are placed upon the fourth and fifth dorsal seg- 
ments of the body; and the six posterior ones, which 
point to the anus and are so near to each other as at first 
* Reaum. Mem. de P Acad. Roy. des Sciences de Paris, An. 1714. 
p. 203. 
