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There are many species, both foreign and British the most remarkable of the latter, is the great variegated 1)ragonf1y. This insect is seen in the beginning of autumn, and is remarkably elegant. Examine its head, and you will perceive something like a mask, which, of ning in the middle by a sort of hinge, serves to hold its prey while it is dc Ton ring it. The female deposits her eggs irs the water, which, sinking to the bottom, prorn duce isrva or caterpillars of a xery singular md disgreeabtc aspect rlhclr coloui is dusky brown, and they cast their skins several times before they arrive at their full size. In the pupa state, the rudrnents of the future wings are very apparent. These larvm inc excessively voracious, devouring great num hers of the smaller mvaterinsects, without dis tinction of kinds. They continue in the r Iars'a and pupa states for two years, when they prepare for their liberation to tint of the ti by £reeping ip the stern of some waterplan, and grasping it with their feet, make an effort, by which the skin of the back and head i forced pcn, and makes way for the animal to get free: it tIrt .puts'-forth its head and wings, (liich, like tho of butterflies, re then short, tender, and cotiti icted,) and after wails grad. ally lras 'out the body. This curious trans

forma tioit


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