Our insect friends and foes / by F. Martin Duncan.

  • F. Martin Duncan
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our insect friends and foes / by F. Martin Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    131/348 page 99
    an extremely delicate pellicle, hiding the true colours of the perfect insect. This sub-imago, as it is called, attaches itself to any convenient resting-place near the pond or stream, and then, after a short interval that varies slightly in its duration in the different species, the delicate outer skin is ruptured and the perfect insect emerges, with brighter wings and longer caudal bristles, and flies away to spend the brief period of its perfect existence in courtship and merry dancing. A small, rather compactly built Spider, about half an inch long, and of a deep ashen colour, may frequently be seen running in sudden swift spurts over the floating leaves of the water plants. Its body is densely clothed with fine hairs, the use of which are immediately realized when the Spider dives into the water; for they carry down a supply of air in. their interstices, and so enable the Spider to breathe while under water. When the Water-Spider's body is sub- merged, this coating of hair gives it a very beauti- ful appearance, as if it were partially coated with burnished silver. The Water-Spider is a most interesting creature in its habits, and may be kept under observation very easily in an aquarium containing growing water plants and a few small aquatic larvae, etc. It will then be seen that the Water-Spider not only spends the greater part of its life beneath the surface of the water, but that it pursues its prey and constructs its nest therein. The Water-Spider builds itself a dome-shaped nest, attached by a series of silken threads to the surrounding stems of the
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