222 LITTLE FOLKS 
yellowish mud, with large sharp, curved jaws. These jaws were 
hollow, so that when he had seized his prey with them, he could 
suck up their juices through them. 
When this ferocious fellow got his growth, he crawled out of 
the water and made a hole in the ground, where he stayed till he 
came out a perfect Beetle. 
The Dyticus lives in the water of ponds and rivers, but at 
night he takes to his wings and flies about in the air. When he 
comes back to the water, he has a curious habit of closing his 
wings and dropping into the water, but this habit sometimes gets 
him into trouble, for he has been known to mistake glass for water, 
and so come bump on to the top of a greenhouse, which must have 
astonished him very much. 
