ir)S HEMIPTERA. 
or rostrum, is very sharp, and might give 
a very disagreeable wound. 
Lucy. How then are these dangerous 
little creatures caught ? 
Mother. By means of a net with very 
small meshes, fastened to a hoop, and 
fixed to the end of a long handle. Many 
of the water insects are very ferocious, 
and the boat fly is peculiarly so ; it pur- 
sues the smaller species with wonderful 
rapidity, and seizing them with its fore 
legs, darts in its rostrum, and then devours 
them. 
Lucy. What sort of worms are their 
larvae ? 
Mother. They very much resemble 
the perfect fly, but want its wings ; and 
they undergo their changes in the soft 
banks of ponds. 
Lucy. And when they have obtained 
their wings do they ever make use of 
them ? 
Mother, In sunshine they stretch 
themselves on the ground, and expand 
their wings in the sun, till they are dry ; 
