GLIMMER-CHAFER. 
270 
dom exceeding the third of an inch in length ; it 
is of an oval figure, and has acquired its specific 
name from the shining surface of its back, which 
glistens in the sun. It has been observed, that 
where these insects swarm, and the weather is 
very hot, they exhale a strong and disagreeable 
smell. 
The eggs of these diminutive animals are de- 
posited in the form of small white specks on the 
stems of aquatic plants, and the larvae which are 
produced from them are really curious. Dr. Shaw’s 
description of their figure, &c. is as follows : 
“ The larva is of a highly singular aspect, having 
a very lengthened body, furnished, exclusive of six 
legs on the fore parts, with a great many lateral 
appendages, or processes down the body ; those to- 
wards the extremity considerably exceeding the 
rest. In its motions it is extremely agile, swim- 
ming in a kind of serpentine manner, and preying 
on the smaller and weaker water insects, minute 
worms, &c. ; the head is armed with a pair of 
forceps, pierced on each side the tip with a small 
foramen, through which it sucks the juices of the 
animals on which it preys : the colour of this larva 
is a very pale or whitish brown, with a high degree 
of transparency, which renders it a highly curious 
object for the microscope : its length, when full 
grown, is about three quarters of an inch. When 
the time of its change arrives, it forms for itself a 
small oval cell, or case, on a leaf of sedge, or other 
