The wH;HS1ty @ ROY “of A NSE Gays, 
other eggs are orderly placed in the fame man- 
ner, fo as to afford ample matter for admiring 
and adoring the all-fecing Architect, who fo 
wifely formed and difpofed them. 
Thefe water Scorpions live in the water 
all the day, out of which they rife about the 
dufk of evening into the air, and fo flying from 
place to place often betake themfelves in queft 
of food to other waters. ‘This is always their 
courfe when the ditches in which they inhabit, 
come to be dried up. This affords us a fatis- 
factory reafon for the great number of infects 
that immediately appear in the fmalleft col- 
le&tions of water; fince they may very well 
get thither when it is dark; fo that the opinion 
which afcribes to putrefaction the power of 
forming infeéts, muft by this inftance of the 
water Scorpion’s nocturnal tranfmigrations ap= 
pear more and more frivolous and unneceflary. 
{ have in fat been told bya perfon who took 
great delight in fifhing, that he has found the 
eges of fome kinds of Fith fticking to the 
wings of Ducks, who by this means he with 
great reafon imagined might ferve to reple- 
nifh the waters on the top of the higheft moun- 
tains with the infects proper to that element: 
103 
The Nymph of the water Scorpion remains 
in the fame place where it was produced, till 
the wings are full grown, when fhe imme- 
diately fallies forth in fearch of a companion 
of the other fex, with whom fhe may carry on 
the great bufinefs of propagation, and multi- 
tiply the fpecies. 
The Water Scorpions of the larger fpecies 
differ but little from the fmaller, which I have 
hitherto defcribed. The body of the larger 
kind, Tab. Ill. fig. 1x. @, is much longer and 
fharper than that of the other; and its limbs 
are more diftinét and confpicuous. It is alfo 
of a paler colour, fomewhat more gray, but 
inclining to red. As to the claws in this 
{pecies there is in them fomething very remar- 
kable ; the joints from which they {pring are 
furnifhed each with two fharp proceffes 44, 
in order to receive, and as it were fheath 
thefe fharp claws when bent againft them. 
The legs alfo are much longer, and are made 
like ftiff and flender briftles cc ; but the mem- 
branous extremities and ornaments d of the 
wings differ greatly. I have not examined 
the internal parts of this fpecies: 
The natural hiftory of the infect called the Hemerobios, Ephemeris, or Diaria, 
extracted from 
j. Swammerdam’s account of it, formerly printed in Dutch 
under the title of, The Life of the Ephemerus. 
E thall leave out in this extract all thie 
pious meditations and religious fen- 
timents with which the original is fo liberally 
furnithed, as they would {well this work into 
too large a bulk, and do not properly belong 
to the defign of it as a natural hiftory. The 
author publifhed at that time his obfervations 
on that furprifing infect, to give us wretched 
moftals a lively image of the fhortnefs of this 
prefent life, and thereby to induce us by the 
help of frequent admonitions to afpire to a 
better: and we hope we cannot in juftice be 
accufed of defeating his well-meant labours by 
abridging them in this manner, feeing his book, 
which he himfelf publifhed, is ready to be had 
by any one that chufes to read every thing he 
has faid on this fubje@. It contains alfo a 
Ci bat ek 
great number of Dutch fentencés in verfe, and 
in profe, of which it would be almoft impoffi- 
ble to give 4 proper verfion fit to appear in 
public; and to interrupt the work with Dutch 
quotations, would be fpoiling the regularity 
of the wotk. ‘That the illufttious Thevenot, 
whom Swammerdam himfelf firft charged with 
the edition of this work, intended to proceed 
in the fame manner, appears very plainly from. 
a Fretich trahflation of the natural hiftory of 
the French Ephemerus, which has fallen into 
our hands amongft other manufcripts relating 
to this fubje&t. We fhall therefore proceed in 
this defign of giving the reader all that relates 
to its hiftory, and nothing more, without any 
further apology: | 
Je 1. 
The Ephemerus is produced from an egg ®, 
HIS infect, Tab. XIII. fig. xv. has 
four wings, two little antennz or horns, 
fix legs, and a very long and hairy tail ; it lives 
at the utmoft but five hours. This furprifing 
creature appears every year for three day fuc- 
* The Ephemerus, for fo it is the eftablifhed cuftom now to writ 
ceffively fluttering on the furfate of the water; 
at the mouths of the Rhine, the Meufe, the 
Wael, the Leck and the Yfel, about the feaft 
of St. Olophivis and St. John; but this con- 
tinued appearance is kept up by a fucceffion of 
the word, conftitutes a diftin& genus among the four-winged Flies. 
‘The charatters are, that there are two large prominences for the eyes’on the upper part of the head; thatthe tail is furnifhed with 
fome briftly hairs, and the antenne are fhort. There are feveral fpecies of this genus of different fides. 
them 
