The Insect Folk Part 3

Look and see if it has a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.

Are there antennae on its head? And has it eyes?

If you were to look at its eyes with a microscope, you would find that they are made of six-sided facets, like the eyes of the grown-up dragon fly.

They are compound eyes, but they are not as large as the eyes of the grown-up dragon fly.

How many legs has it? What are its legs fastened to?

Yes, Nellie, thorax is right.

Its six legs are fastened to its thorax. I am glad you remembered thorax.

Has it a jointed abdomen? and has it wings?

Look! did you see that?

It opened its innocent-looking face all of a sudden, just darted it out into a long-handled spoon, with hooks at the end, and hooked up that little grub.

Now it is holding the grub on the hooks in front of its mouth and eating it as greedily as if it were half starved.

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So that is why its face looks so queer.

It is its long under lip all folded up in front like a mask that makes it look like a pug dog.

When it pleases it darts out that lip, and any unlucky insect or snail may fall a prey to its greedy appet.i.te.

It is said that the larvae of some dragon flies even eat pollywogs and small fishes.

Ned wants to know if "larvae" means the same as "larva."

Yes, it is the plural form of the word. When we speak of only one we say "larva"; when we speak of more than one, instead of saying "larvas," we say "larvae."

The dragon fly larvae are terrible gluttons, and hidden under the mask are strong jaws for chewing up their prey.

Their legs are quite large and strong, too, for they crawl about the bottom of the pond or up the stalks of the plants.

They do not move about very fast, but they do shoot out that under lip very, very, _very_ fast indeed, so good-by to any little live thing in the pond that comes within reach of it.

The dragon fly larvae do not all look alike. They are different in the different species of dragon flies, and, like the rest of us, they change as they grow older.

Yes, May, you can keep the dragon fly larvae until they change into dragon flies.

You must supply them with fresh water and with enough to eat.

And you must put a net over the bowl or aquarium in which you keep them, otherwise as soon as they are able they will fly away.

How can they fly without wings?

Oh, but they are going to have wings. You know they are young dragon flies in spite of their strange appearance.

Be sure and feed them enough, or else they will eat each other, and that would be a pity; and be sure there are some water plants for them to hide under and crawl upon.

You can give them a little fresh fish or a tiny bit of very fresh meat, though they like best the living things they find in the bottom of the pond.

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When the dragon fly larva first hatches it is very small and its legs are rather long and spidery, but it eats and eats and eats,--my, how it eats!

And it grows and grows, and one day it finds its skin too tight.

A tight skin must be rather uncomfortable.

But the larva does not care much for its skin.

It merely splits it open down the back and pulls itself out.

Perhaps you think it must be yet more uncomfortable to be without a skin.

But it is not without a skin. It is covered by a new and soft one that soon hardens, and that is larger than the old one.

It wriggles out of its old skin as though it were an old coat, and leaves it clinging to the weeds in the pond.

Sometime you may find these cast-off dragon fly overcoats.

After it has shed its skin the dragon fly continues to grow. It keeps on growing until it has outgrown its new skin.

Then what do you think it does?

Yes, Charlie, that is right, it sheds this skin too.

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When it sheds its skin we say it moults.

It moults several times, and at last little short wings appear. At first it has no wings at all, you know.

Amy wonders how the larva breathes under water.

Ah, Master Ned, you are laughing too soon. You think insects do not have to breathe, but you are very much mistaken, sir.

Insects do have to breathe.

They would die if they could get no air to breathe.

Some of the dragon fly larvae have an odd arrangement for breathing under water. They have a sort of syringe in the end of the body, and there are breathing pores or gills in the syringe.