DRAGON-FLIES AND THEIR LARViE. 
These are popularly known by the names of horse-stingers 
and dragon-flies. The former name is founded on a vulgar 
error, since the animal has no sting. The illusion implied by the 
latter is, however, more correct, since the insects, both in their 
appearance and voracious habits, are certainly more entitled to the 
name of dragons than that of demoiselles, or lady-flies, by which 
they are commonly known in France. 
Fig. 1, 
The beautiful appearance of these insects on the wing, their 
varied colours, the gauze-like structure of their wings, and the 
rapidity of their flight, must have attracted general attention. 
In hot summer days, they may be seen darting backwards and 
forwards in the air over standing pools, which supply them 
abundantly with the insects on which they feed. Their colours 
are subject to much diversity, the males having an abdomen of 
leadish blue, while that of the females is a yellowish brown. In 
some species, the males have a rich bright blue colour, with black 
wings, while the females are distinguished by a fine green, with 
colourless wings. 
After impregnation, the female hovers over the surface of the 
water until she selects a place for the deposition of her eggs, 
which she deposits one by one in the water, beating the surface 
with her tail while she lays them, until at length they are col¬ 
lected into a mass resembling a bunch of grapes. 
The larvae on issuing from the egg are so minute as to be 
scarcely perceptible to the naked eye. In some days, however, 
they attain the length of the tenth of an inch, and cast their skin 
for the first time. To the naked eye they appear in this state 
like black spots, to which a tail is attached. When well fed they 
grow rapidly ; and when they have attained the length of about 
a quarter of an inch, they begin to display their characteristic 
courage and ferocity, attacking, with open mouth, creatures ten 
times their own bulk; and, when pressed by hunger, devouring 
each other. 
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