586 
ARTICUL ATA 
AMERICAN DRAGON-FLY OR JESHNA. 
It is of a deep steel-blue color, and the wings have a large dark patch, near the apex. Some of 
the Dragon-Flies have the abdomen at least six inches long. Among the larger kinds is the 
Lihellula depressa of Linnasus, common in Europe, and popularly called Eleanor ; the abdomen 
is large, short, and flat, and composed of nine rings or segments ; the wings are diaphanous, and 
the flight is exceedingly light. 
The Dragon-Flies, of various sizes, are numerous in this country, and are commonly called 
DeviVs Darning -Needles, and sometimes Spinners. They are often seen moving with a rapid 
flight over rivers, ponds, and meadows, alighting for a moment, and then shooting away again. 
They are beautifully colored, and have a peculiarly light and airy apj)earance. They are, how- 
ever, exceedingly voracious, being among insects what hawks and eagles are among birds. But 
although formidable to the minute creatures of their own class, they are perfectly harmless to 
man. Nay, they are in fact very useful to him, as they destroy a vast number of gnats and 
other insects which are troublesome 
or destructive. If a few dragon-flies 
be shut up in a house for a short 
time they will exterminate the mos- 
quitos, flies, and other vexatious 
blood-suckers of the kind, just as a 
few toads put into a room will rid 
it of bed-bugs, cockroaches, and the 
like. 
THE EPHEMERIDiE. 
These insects are called Day- 
Flies from the shortness of their 
existence in the perfect state ; they 
are also called May-Flies. Both 
larvas and pupse present a consider- 
able resemblance to the perfect in- 
MAx-FMEs. I entire period of the 
preparatory stages is passed in the 
water. During this period the larvae and pupaa make themselves little burrows in the sides of 
