The BPsiTO RY. oof FNS E GT s: 
feen two teeth, covered with a beautiful lip ; 
with thefe the creatures bite fiercely when they 
are taken: and it was probably for this reafon 
that Junius gave them the name of Mordellz. 
But whether their bite be venomous, or raifesa 
blifter in the skin, I have not hitherto obferved. 
Since the Dragon-Flies have very large and 
long wings; and, on the contrary, very fhort 
legs in proportion, it is not agreeable to them 
to walk on the ground, and the more, becaufe 
when they walk, they do not raife their wings, 
nor keep them clofe on their back, like the 
Butterflies. For which reafon they always 
choofe dry branches of trees, on which they 
pitch when they want to reft or have catched 
their prey, which they feize with their fix legs 
in the air, convey into their mouth with their 
two foremoft legs, and then break it in pieces 
with their teeth. In this they do not {pare the 
melliferous Bees ; they catch them in the air and 
deftroy them. Thefe Flies cannot be kept alive 
long in a box, unlefs they are fed every day 
with Flies, which they like to eat. They are 
greatly delighted with the rays of the fun; to 
which they are indebted both for life and mo- 
tion; for, when the heavens are cloudy, and the 
air obfcure, they reft and do not eat, having 
then very little motion. 
The thorax, on the infide, where the wings 
are fixed to the fhoulder blades, exhibits a large 
number of mufcular fibres, which ferve to move 
the legs and wings: Through thefe fibres pafs 
the heart, gullet, and {pinal marrow, the 
greateft part of which are placed in the loins and. 
‘belly. But as I-have not hitherto perfected the 
exact anatomy of thefe creatures, I cannot ad- 
vance any more particulars concerning them. 
The ftomach is fhaped like a pear; I have once 
feen it full of food, and at another time full of 
air. The pulmonary veffels are likewife nu- 
merous here. One may likewife diftinélly fee 
the mutfcular fibres, which I never {aw agitated 
with-any remarkable motion. 
The male hath its penis placed about the 
beginning of its belly, the female on the con- 
trary has the orifice of the vulva, in the extre- 
mity of her tail ; but I have not accurately 
viewed thefe parts, fince, in order to make the 
diffections, I fhould have taken out the entrails 
of thefe infects firft, that I might preferve 
the whole form of their bodies. This may be 
eafily done, if one takes out the vifcera, and 
afterwards fprinkles the parts, which are ftill 
wettifh on the infide, with plaifter of Paris, or 
unflacked lime, which imbibes the moifture, 
09 
By this means a very elegant fpecimen of the 
tail, breaft, and-eyes, may be preferved; and 
this contrivance is likewife made ufe of by 
painters and engravers. ‘There is upon all thefe 
occafions a neceflity for a cautious and circum- 
{pect dexttrity, which cannot be acquired but 
by frequent exercife, and is not to be taught 
by words. 
Though the Dragon-fly is, in every refpedt, 
4 wonderful creature, and ha’ its genital organs — 
placed in a very fingular manner in its body 3 
its act of coition in particular exceeds or fur- 
pafles all the powers of our imagination. The 
male, fluctuating and rifing up and down in 
the air, and cutting it with many convolutions, 
knows how to ftretch or hold out its tail with 
wonderful velocity to the female; Tab. XII, 
fig. 111; @, who places it between the divifion 
of her head and eyes, and guides it into her 
neck, and then, clofely embracing it with her 
legs, receives it very pleafinglyd; then fhe im- 
mediately bends and turns her body toward the 
breaft of the male c, where the mafculine or-~ 
gans of generation are placed near the upper 
part of the belly; and thus continually flying 
and panting, they perform the bufinefs of coi- 
tion in the air. By this means the extremity of 
the female’s tail is bent back, towards the mid- 
dle of the male’s body, that is toward that part 
where the penis lies, which is received by the 
vulva of the female, placed in the top of her 
tail, but that the female may the more conve- 
niently reach to that part, the male thortens 
himfelf as it were, and bends and contracts his 
tail confiderably. 
The female being thus impregnated, after 
fome time dips her tail into the water, and 
throws her eggs into it. Thefe eggs, as I have 
already obferved, are oblong, and while they 
are {mall and imperfect, they are fomewhat 
tender and whitith, but afterwards they by de- 
grees grow hard and yellow, having a blackith 
point at their end. How long {uch an ege 
remains in the water before the Worm is pro- 
duced from it, is as much unknown to me, as 
how long it is increafing from that tine until 
it changes its skin; but I thould think two 
years are neceflary for this purpofe, fince I have 
obferved that thefe Worms were at the end of 
the fummer very far from a {tate of perfedtion: 
I have fometimes feen in. France {0 great a 
number of them in a clayey ditch that had no 
water plants in it, that they covered the whole 
bottom: - 
Of the various fpecies of the Nymph-V ermicles of thé Dragon-Ely. 
S I have obferved in the general enumera- 
tion of thefe creatures, that I kept fix of 
the Nymphs, one of which I have before de- 
lineated, Tab. XII. N°. v. I thall now repre= 
fent and briefly defcribe four others, The firft 
belongs to one of the largeft Dragon-Flies, in 
the head whereof are obferved two equal, but 
not reticular eyes, fig. 1v. aa; before thefe 
are placed two horns 6 4, and under the latter 
may be feen the three divifions of the mouth, 
whereof the two upper are provided with teethc, 
which may be moft properly called fo, only I 
think them too delicate and tender. Underneath 
at the breaft are fituated fix legs, which have 
two 
