\ 
294 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 
found to have a packet of thread, from which, however, 
it soon disengages itself, between the two last pairs of 
perfect lees*. ‘To see hundreds of these little animals 
pendent at the same time from the boughs of a tree, sus- 
pended at different heights, some working their way 
downwards and some upwards, affords a very amusing 
spectacle. Sometimes, when the wind is high, they are 
blown to the distance of several yards from the tree, and 
yet maintain their threads unbroken. I witnessed an 
instance of this last summer, when numbers were driven 
far from the most extended branches, and looked as if 
they were floating in the air. | 
Having related to you what is peculiar in the motions 
of pedate larvae upon the earth and in the air, I must 
next say something with respect to their locomotive 
powers in the water. Numbers of this description in- 
habit that element.—Amongst the beetles, the genera 
Dytiscus, Hydrophilus, Gyrinus, Elmis, Parnus, Hetero~ 
cerus, Elophorus, Hydrena, &c. amongst the bug tribes 
(Cimicide), Gerris, Velia, Hydrometra, Notonecta, Si- 
gara, Nepa, Ranatra, Naucoris; a few Lepidoptera ; 
the majority of Trichoptera ; Libellula, Aeshna, Agrion, 
Szalis, Ephemera, &c. amongst the Neuroptera; Culex 
and many of the Tipulide from the dipterous insects ; 
and from the Aptera, Atax, some Podure, and many of 
the Oniscide, &c.—All these, in their larva state, are 
aquatic animals, 
The motions of these creatures in this state are 
various. Some walk on the ground under water; some 
move in midwater, either by the same motion of the 
*Reaum. ii, 375— 
