other fpecics, commits great havoc amongft the 
more tender aquatic infects, as well as among!! 
worms and young fifh, which it feizes with its for- 
cipated jaws, and deftroys by fucking out their 
juices. The larvae of the larger Dytifci were de- 
fcribed by the older writers on natural hiftory under 
the title of Squilla aqual‘tc<e; and were not at that 
time known to be Dytifci in their firl! or caterpillar 
ftate. There is a great fimilarity between the larvae 
of the different Dytifci; but that of the prefent 
fpecics is diftinguifhed by a particularity fo very 
remarkable as fcarce to be equalled by any other 
creature. This conftfts in the apparently anomalous 
fituation of the legs; which feem, unlefs very ac¬ 
curately examined, to be placed, not beneath the 
thorax, as in other infects, but on the upper part, 
and from thence to be defleded towards the lides. 
This uncommon appearance however is not owing 
to a real dorfal inftead of ventral infertion of the 
legs, but principally to the peculiar fhape and po¬ 
rtion of the head ; and the deception is fo much 
heightened by the inverted pofture in which the in- 
fed generally fwims and refts, that it is by no 
means eafy even for the molt fcientific obferver to 
diveft himfelf of the erroneous idea before men¬ 
tioned. Frifch, in his Hiftory of Infeds, appears 
to have been completely convinced of the real dorfal 
infertion of the legs ; and the celebrated Reaumur, 
having difeovered fortiething fimilar in another aqua- 
tic infed, was fo ftruck with the unufual appear¬ 
ance, that he has commemorated it as a circumftance' 
unparalleled in the animal world. The author of 
the 
