The Insect Folk Part 28

In some species of the giant water bugs the female does not leave her eggs in the pond to take care of themselves; she puts them on the back of her mate, who is obliged to carry all of his progeny about with him until they relieve him by hatching out and swimming off to see life for themselves.

LITTLE MRS. Sh.o.r.e BUG

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May says she wants to hear more about bugs. Well, there is little Mrs.

Sh.o.r.e Bug. I think you must all know her.

She is the little bug that flies along in front of you on the seash.o.r.e, or, indeed, on the edge of any body of water.

She flits along just in front of you, and is so quick in her motions that you will hardly ever catch her.

She does not fly far--she alights just far enough ahead to make you try again to capture her, but when you think you have her, she isn't there!

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She has sped off on one of her short flights, and so she will continue to do as long as you continue to chase her.

THE AIRY WATER STRIDERS

Then there are the water striders.

They are bugs, and it is easy to guess how they got their name.

You surely remember the longlegged, dark colored fellows that straddle about on top of the water, in ponds or in still pools in streams?

Who has not tried to catch them!

And how very seldom any one succeeds!

May knows where we can see some water striders close at hand.

They are on the pond in the meadow. Let us go.

Ah, you little ones! There you are, scampering over the water on your airy, fairy feet, as though you were on dry land.

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How they flash about! And what cunning dimples their little feet make on the water when they stand still!

If we keep very quiet, they will stop darting about in that wild way, and we can see them better.

Now, water striders, why do you behave so, and what do you eat?

Eat? Why, insects, of course. And as to behavior, they may well wonder more at ours than we at theirs.

They skate about on the surface of the water all summer, and when winter comes they hide away at the bottom of the pond, right under the water, or along the edges of the banks.

When the warm spring suns.h.i.+ne wakes up the sleeping plants, then the little water striders wake up too.

Out they come, to resume their endless skating and insect catching, but now they lay their eggs, gluing them fast to water weeds.

The young water striders look like their parents, and they, too, like to go circling and flas.h.i.+ng over the top of the water, with their long legs spread out.

A QUEER FELLOW

What do you suppose is in this box?

Little Nell may open it.

There, out he comes--slowly, as though he were looking around and thinking about it.

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May says, "h.e.l.lo, Mr. Walking Stick, you here again?"

Ho! ho! _is_ it Mr. Walking Stick?

You look again.

Mollie thinks, if she were going to name it, she would call it Mr.

Walking Threads.

Yes, it is more slender than even the walking stick.

What is that, John? You thought insects had six legs, and this has only four?

Now, here is something for us to think about.

Ned says it has six long threads that might be legs, but it does not walk on the two front ones.

It seems to use them as antennae.

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Ned says those front ones look to him to be jointed just like the others, and he thinks they are legs.