THE LIVING WORLD. 
238 
plants, with which it cements a friendship; in each bunch of eggs there is 
upwards of a hundred. The larvae have to forage for their own food, and they 
are able to propel themselves through the water upon the principle of the 
syringe. The underlip is armed at its extremity with a pair of hooks, and is 
darted out at the victim. I11 passing to the pupa stage the larva moults and 
the pupa adds a pair of wings. The pupa in its turn moults, having first 
climbed to the surface, and the Cinderella-like grub is succeeded by the gaily- 
apparelled creature so well known. It is the despot of the insect world. It 
is erroneously suspected of annoying horses, for it is perfectly innocent of any 
such transgression. 
The Little Devils of Geodfrey were named by the entomologist Geodfrey. 
Creatures of a day, these dragon-flies are clothed in colors so brilliant and 
varied as to dim the lustre of gems and jewels. The ingenuity of man in 
producing hues is slight in comparison with the native endowment of these 
insects, who multiply colors until they become indescribable by human language, 
though none the less appreciable by human sense. Then, again, there is an 
evident provision for the necessities of their lives. The mormolycce insects, 
for example, so perfectly resemble 
a leaf in veining and coloring that 
even birds are led astray by the 
deception. 
The Leaf Bug (. Mormoly phyl- 
lodes ) is three inches in length, and is 
to be found in Java. Color, brown, 
except the legs and antennae, 
which are black. It is remark¬ 
able for its crabrshaped back, al¬ 
though it takes its name from its 
frequent resemblance to a leaf. 
It is found under the branches 
of trees and also haunts the tall 
grasses and flowers, the juices of which constitute its principal food. Though 
called a bug, it is really a link between the moth and butterfly since it resembles 
both, and its habits are also imitative of each. 
The Ant-Lion, when in its larval stage, digs a pit perfectly circular, 
using its head and jaws as a shovel, and throwing the sand out so as to 
form a slope about the pit. The slightest disturbance of the sand is sufficient 
reason for the insect to dig out more sand, and thus cause the victim to slip 
down within easy reach, and submit to yielding up its life’s blood. Like the 
crab, it walks backwards.' When it encounters a pebble too heavy to be thrown 
out by its head, it patiently struggles until it has got it upon its back, when 
it carries it away just as a porter would do. It builds for itself a case of 
sand, and lines it with a silken web, preparatory to its metamorphosis into a 
pupa. It finally passes into an ephemera, and closes its life similar to that 
of the dragon-fly. Mv American readers will, perhaps, more readily recognize 
the ant-lion under its common name of doodle bag , and will call to mind their 
boyhood days when among the sand of overshelving rocks they found the 
bug’s shallow basin, and succeeded in luring it from its haunt by calling doodle¬ 
bug, doodle-bug, doodle, doodle, as I have very often done. 
ANTS AT PLAY. 
