distresses older
persons, so that its name has become a byword. Could we understand the
language of insects, what tales of horror would be revealed! What
traditions, sagas, fables, and myths must adorn the annals of animal
life regarding this Dragon among insects!

To man, however, aside from its bad name and its repulsive aspect, which
its gay trappings do not conceal, its whole life is beneficent. It is a
scavenger, being like that class ugly and repulsive, and holding
literally, among insects, the lowest rank in society. In the water, it
preys upon young mosquitoes and the larvae of other noxious insects. It
thus aids in maintaining the balance of life, and cleanses the swamps of
miasmata, thus purifying the air we breathe. During its existence of
three or four weeks above the waters, its whole life is a continued good
to man. It hawks over pools and fields and through gardens, decimating
swarms of mosquitoes, flies, gnats, and other baneful insects. It is a
true Malthus' delight, and, following that sanguinary philosopher, we
may believe that our Dragon fly is an entomological Tamerlane or
Napoleon sent into the world by a kind Providence to prevent too close a
jostling among the myriads of insect life.

We will, then, conquer our repugnance to its ugly looks and savage mien,
and contemplate the hideous monstrosity,--as it is useless to deny that
it combines the graces of the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Dickens'
Quilp, with certain features of its own,--for the good it does in
Nature.

Even among insects, a class replete with forms the very incarnation of
ugliness and the perfection of all that is hideous in nature, our Dragon
fly is most conspicuous. Look at its enormous head, with its beetling
brows, retreating face, and heavy under jaws,--all eyes and teeth,--and
hung so loosely on its short, weak neck, sunk beneath its enormous
hunchback,--for it is wofully round-shouldered,--while its long, thin
legs, shrunken as if from disease, are drawn up beneath its breast, and
what a hobgoblin it is!

Its gleaming wings are, however, beautiful objects. They form a broad
expanse of delicate parchment-like membrane drawn over an intricate
network of veins. Though the body is bulky, it is yet light, and easily
sustained by the wings. The long tail undoubtedly acts as a rudder to
steady its flight.

These insects are almost universally dressed in the gayest colors. The
body is variously banded with rich shades of blue,