The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-09-18
A Draeon-FIy.

was there ever a lovelier sight thar
group Of demoiselles, dusky-winged
with bodies of shining emerald. dancing
above a woodland brook? Who could
imagine that these exquisite creatures
were born Of the slime and darkness
| in the bottom of some wayside ditch ?
Like most persons who have had a
sudden rise in the world, the dragon
| ly probably looks down with seorn
| upon his lowly relatives still groveling
IN the mud. And how can he recognize
| these humble ones? you inquire. Did
/ you ever observe the dragons mag
| nli1cent eyes, each made up OF no less
/ than tWenty-eight thousand facets OF
! high-poWer lens? Beside this wonder
| tul pair of compound optics. our friend
i has three simple eyes in a row on the
/ top of his head Perhaps you think he
/ Is provided with more than his share of
| seeing powers, but nature never makes
a mistake. In regions where dragon
| flies are plentiful mosquitoes are much
less numerous than in places where
| these YiGilant hunters arc scarce.
| Watch q dragon-hy hawking over a
| pond ON fair summer evening. Up
and down. across and around. he darts.
and before he stops 10 rest and masti-
/ cate his mOuthful he has captured a
| half dozen mosquitoes, d tiny miller, d
| couple of flies and three midges. So
| you see 1t was not merely for ornament
that nature provided him with 20 many
eyes.
He is indeed dragon to the tiny in
sects peacefully pursuing their Yoca
lions. No less terrible is the dragon
larVa lying in wait with his concealed
arms at the bottom Of the brook Here
| he comes slowly creeping over the mud
Al! he halts and looks intently at "a lit
| lie worm lying motionless in his path.
Upon no account would our dragon
paTtake Of a dead animal. His prey
must be not only freshly killed, but he
himself must invariably be the slayer.
The worm gives a wrigglc. Instantly
the dragons mask Ga strange ar
rangement of his lower lip with hooks
for holding the prey is thrust forth.
lt Seizes the worm and transfers il to
MS Jaws. Scarcely has he swallowed
this tidbit and replaced his mask"
when a shadow passes over his head.
Casting all eye upward he sees a swarm
of little black tadpoles and quick as a
lash shoots upward, and catches the
plumpest of the lot The larVa, like
other water folk, breathes the air
which is dissolved in the water. TO en-
able him to co this he has within his
body little reservoir which he can
open and close at Will As soon as he
spied the tadpOles he elected the water
from his reservoir SO rapidly that he
was shot 40 amOng them and could
take his choice of the dainty morsels.
As Nature looks out carefully to see
that each and all of her children are
suitably clothed to match their sur
roundings she has adapted even this
lowly larva to his abode, earbing him
in bottle green if his home be on a
messy and reedy bottom, in brown
when he lives among twigs and sticks,
and in black when he dwslls in u mud
dy ditch.
For a year and "a half our friend
spends most of his time eating. sleep
ing and now and then changing his
coat. But at last a day daWns when
the sunlight, dancing on the water
seems to draw him irrs sistibly upward
He yearns for something he knows
not what. and creeps up the nearest
rush. Strange sensations are passing
through him. He feels his old coat
giving away and splitting down the
back. Surely that is nothing n=w, for
he has changed this garment dozens of
times before, aud yet this time seems