LVSECT SUCKERS AND EJTERS. ::: 
Xor has he been content writh ravaging the 
water and the air only, for one of his very near 
relations, the ant-lion (llyrmeleon formicaries] 
which is to b : :~ u::d in France and most warm coun- 
5. and which when it has its wings might be 
:.. :i for a dragon-fly lives its early life in dry 
sand, in - hich it twists round and round, till it has 
made a funnel-shaped hole at the bottom of which 
it lies (see plate, p. 13$}. This it does near an ants' 
nest, and when an ant running on the edge of the 
funnel slips in, the ant-lion flings sand upon it so 
that it tumbles to the bottom, and he can devour it. 
Thus in the water, on the land, and in the air, the 
dragon-flies have a good time of it, if they can only 
escape the swallows and other quick -flying birds, 
which pounce down upon them, and the scorpion- 
:5, which, though much smaller than themselves, 
5:inr them to death. 
vJ 
And now we come to the most interesting of 
all the nerve-winged animals, the Termites or white- 
::.:. :s } the plagues of India and Africa. Every one 
has heard of these destructive creatures, which feed 
so cunningly out of sisrht, eating their wav from the 
^ * * 
ground beneath, up the middle of posts, beams, 
woodwork, and furniture ; and even sometimes prop- 
with hardened mud and slime the build- 
ings thev are ;.v, so that no one finds 
f J * 
them out till all at once some part falls down and 
expo ; ; f tb ; rottenness ithi n. They are so clever, 
and have 53 many habits . : true ants that th 
have been called by their name, and most p - 
think that they are I r near relations, But this if 
not so : on the contrar.- : the ants st in : . : .: I 

