It looks like I don't know what, with a face like--well, when you look
right in front of it, like a pug dog.

Queer! Well, I should think so! What is that, Amy? Am I sure it is a
dragon fly?

Yes, there is no mistake; a dragon fly one day dropped an egg in the
pond, and out of it hatched--this.

[Illustration]

It will some day become a shiny-winged dragon fly and catch mosquitoes.

We will call it larva, and we will watch it a little while.

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.

[Illustration]

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 appetite.

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 chan