April 6, igoi.] 
POHEST AND STREAM. 
268 
My old friend, the late F. G. Sanborn, who was one 
of the best observers I ever met, says of these insects: 
"'The dragon flies are to be seen during the whole sum- 
mer, swiftly darting and circling through the air, seizing 
and devouring the moths and butterflies that cross their 
path. In passing a pool or brook the sharp rattle of their 
thin, crisp wings strikes on the ear and calls the attention 
to the sportive flight of these terrible destroyers. Moths 
and butterflies laden with eggs, that venture from the 
security^ of the foliage to wing their sluggish flight to 
some appropriate place to deposit their burden, are quickly 
snapped up by the watchful dragon fly, who tears off the 
appearance, but are generally much smaller m size; the 
work done by them is of the most interesting and im 
portant character. 
They are named from the fabled little creature which 
was said to enter the throat of the crocodile and prey upon 
the vitals of its huge enemy; their mission is to deposit 
one or more eggs in the bodies of the caterpillars by punc- 
turing the skin and thrusting the eggs in the orifices. The 
ichneumon hover^ about the body of the caterpillar and at 
a favorable moment darts against it and pierces its body 
with her ovipositer, which is a bristle-shaped little organ 
at the extremity of her abdomen, and with this the egg is 
very mdustrious in its pursuit of insects and sometms* 
enters dwellings in quest of its prey. The spiders afc 
also well-known insect eaters, and the services they render 
are very important, but they are generally regarded with 
antipathy by the unthinking, who, forgetting the valu- 
able work that is done by them, destroy them when- 
ever they meet them. 
My descriptions of insect life interested my listeners 
and the evening passed very quickly. 
"Bless my soul !" exclaimed Mrs. Murray as the cloek 
struck II ; '.'we are keeping late hours, indeed." 
CATERPILLAR VlTH' COCOON'S OF ICHNEUMONS ON ITS BACK. 
"Yes," I respotided, taking my night lamp, which she 
hghted for me; "our natural history discussion made the 
tirne fly rapidly. I hope I have not tired you." 
"No, indeed," was the reply; "I have enjoyed it more 
than you can imagine." 
Good nights were soon exchanged, and in a short time 
the occupants- of the cottage were wrapped in the quiet, 
refreshmg slumber which is always found in a Nova 
Scotia farmhouse. Edward A. Samuels. 
STAR- NOSED MOLE (Condylura cristata, Harlan). 
a. Front view of nose. 
lean and useless wings and makes a rich repast on the 
plump body of his victim. It would be perhaps considered 
unnecessary to advert to the childish tradition of the 
terrific effects of the dragon fly on the human system — 
namely, its alleged powers of sewing up the eyes and of 
stringing men and animals— we should rather consider 
them as benefactors, knowing that they are incapable of 
injuring ourselves of our domestic animals, and that 
the powerful mandibles and sharp claws with which they 
are armed are only terrible to our enemies — the moths and 
butterflies. It may be here stated as a well-ascertained and 
authenticated fact that there is not one of our native moths 
or butterflies but what is more or less injurious to the 
DRAGON FLY. 
agriculturist. The thousands of species known to science 
* subsist on vegetable food with scarce a dozen excep- 
tions;, and these destroy furs, woolen clothing and other 
household property. To return to the dragon flies : their 
eggs, which are laid near the surface beneath the water, 
hatch, not into winged insects like the parent, but into 
oddly shaped animals, which are chiefly remarkable for 
their masked mouth and the power of moving hy means of 
a jet of water expelled from the tail. They pass most of 
their lives during the larva stage in crawling about upon 
the bottom and feeding upon other aquatic insects or even 
small fish; after some months they become full grown, 
having changed their skin many times, and now are in 
the pupa state, appearing with short wing cases ; now 
PUPA OF DRAGON FLY. 
emerging from the water, they cling firmly to some stone 
or other substance a few inches above the surface, and, the 
skin on 'the back splitting open, the insect slowly disen- 
gages itself and works its way out, having now wings and 
other organs like its parent; these at first are moist and 
crumpled, but in a few hours become expanded and 
hardened, and the brilliant colors gradually become ap- 
parent. The larva can in its earlier stages be distinguished 
from the pupa by the absence of the four wing cases of a 
long, triangular form just behind the bases of the posterior 
feet." 
In addition to the dragon flies there are many other 
rapacious insects such as the tiger beetles, etc., and sup- 
plementing their work are the ichneumon flies, those little 
insects which somewhat resemble wasps in their general 
deposited in the wound. The larvfe when hatched _from 
those eggs which have been deposited devour the fleshy 
parts of the victim until fully grown, when, emergmg 
from their succulent home, they each spin a cocoon on 
the skin of the caterpillar in which they remain until 
they become perfect insects, and this transformation being 
completed they are ready to lay their eggs m other 
caterpillars. Sometimes the egg is laid on the outside of 
ICHNEUMON FLY. 
the body and the larva, when it hatches, penetrates the 
skin and does its allotted work. 
"There are many species of ichneumons ; it has been 
estimated that there are at least two thousand kinds in 
America alone, and were it not for them we would be 
overrun with insect pests — in fact, the services they render 
to man are of inestimable value." 
An example of their great value lately came to my 
Tragedies of the Woods, 
Editor Forest and Stream: : 
One day in the fall' of 1888, in the mountains of north- 
ern Colorado, while engaged about the ranch, I saw up 
at the head of the meadow a half mile away a bunch of 
a dozen antelope coming. down from the hills- at full 
speed, closely pursued by some black animal. I khew 
that it must be a black wolf, since an -occasional one 
had been seen, and nothing else that I could think of 
could run as this/.was running. AH who are familiar 
with antelope knOw how wonderful is their speed; there 
are a very very few animals which can equal them. 
When I first saw them the wolf was perhaps five or six 
rods behind, and during the distance I could see them 
(possibly eighty rods) it was gaining steadily but 
surely, and as they went out of sight into the hills on the 
other side of the meadow it was seemingly only about 
two jumps behind, and th^-y began to scatter as it was 
closing in on them. 
I was so intensely interested that I was fairly riveted 
to the spot, and not until they had disappeared did I 
waken to action.' I ran to the bunk house, got my guri 
and ran up a steep timbered hillside for a near cut to 
an open valley, for which they were headed, believing 
it would catch one within a short distance. When I got 
to the edge of the timber on top of the hill I saw the 
antelope all huddled together and stannding still, just 
as sheep do after being chased or scared. The antelope 
would have offered a good shot if it had been meat I 
was after, but I cared nothing for getting an antelope, 
but did want a shot at the wolf. 
Judging from the actions of the others, I felt certain 
it had" caught one, but the surrounding country was 
composed of ridges, ravines and patches of timber, and 
YELLOW SPOTTED PIMPLA. 
knowledge. An entomologist wished to raise from the 
caterpillars a number of the so-called potato-vine moths, 
which are large, green caterpillars, often found on potato 
and tomato vines. He collected a number of dozens of 
them, but not a single moth did he succeed in obtaining 
from them, for every caterpillar bore in its fat body 
one or more eggs which the ichneumons had deposited 
there; the parasites hatched and the caterpillars died a 
lingering death. Singularly enough there seems to be a 
special species of ichneumon for each noxious insect. For 
instance, the tobacco worm has its ichneumon, which de- 
posits its eggs so abundantly that, according to the late 
POTATO OR TOMATO CATERPILLAR. 
New York State Entomologist, Dr. Fitch, there are 
enough of the parasites hatched to destroy 2,500 other 
tobacco worms. 
"There are some species which bore their ovipositors 
through solid wood to reach their victims, one of them 
the yellow spotted p'impla, carrying an ovipostor five inches 
in length, with which it reaches the larvae of boring beetles 
deep in the wood." 
There are other rapacious insects which prey upon 
noxious species such as the wasps, hornets, etc. Many of 
these subsist entirely on flies, and a large proportion of 
them upon the caterpillars of various lepedoptera. The 
white-faced hornet is a well-known species, its great paper 
nest often being found in the woods and orchards. It is 
notwithstanding nfy careful search I failed to find any 
trace of the wolf and its prey. 
As I trudged back home after my fruitless chase I 
meditated, as I have often done since, on the long un- 
written, history of wild animal life in regions where 
man has not broken in upon the natural conditions; of 
the contests and conquests among nature's wild crea- 
tures, from the smallest up to the monarchs of the forest, 
all unknown and unrecorded, save on rare occasions 
when we by chance see for ourselves or see the evidence 
thereof, terminating of course in the "survival of the 
fittest." 
At one time I was passing along the edge of the woods 
in winter when there was snow. I saw the track of a 
lynx where it had been leisurely traveling along, when 
the tracks showed where it had stopped behind a pine 
bush and squatted down in the snow, then made a 
tremendous leap out into the open field and run a few 
rods, evidently at its best pace. 
There was the track of a jack rabbit coming down at 
right angles with the course the lynx was going, until 
directly opposite where the lynx was crouching behind 
the bush and about fifteen feet away, then a sudden turn 
and their tracks were mixed together in the race for life 
or a meal; but soon the tracks showed where jack had 
left his pursuer behind, and the lynx went on his way 
at his regular gait, but, we will suppose, net rejoicing, 
thus showing t?ie "survival of the 'swiftest,':" 
Had jack failed to get out of reach and the Ijmx had 
made the proposed connections there would have been 
a bloody, trampled spot on the snow, a few patches of 
white fur, and only the lynx track leading thither. Writ- 
ten on the snow like the great white pages of a book 
the observer may read most interesting tales as he passes 
along, and learn the life and habits of nature's wild 
creatures. Emerson Carney. 
