Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions. / A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

by Frank Cowan

Libellulidæ—Dragon-flies.

On account of the long and slender body, peculiar to the insects of this family, they are with us sometimes called Devil’s Darning-needles, but more commonly Dragon-flies. In Scotland they are known by the name of Flying Adders, for the same reason. The English, from an erroneous belief that they sting horses, call them Horse-stingers. In France, from their light and airy motions, and brilliant, variegated dress, they are called Demoiselles; and in Germany, for the same reason, and that they hover over, and lived during

their first stages in, water, Wasser-jungfern—Virgins of the Water. Another German name for them is Florfliegen—Gauze-flies, in allusion to their net-like wings. Our boys also call them Snake-feeders and Snake-doctors, in the belief that they wait upon snakes in the capacity of feeders and doctors; and so firm are they in this belief, that frequently I have been laughed at for asserting the contrary to them. The belief probably arose from the manner in which the Dragon-fly sometimes falls a prey to the snakes. Hovering over ponds, they are fond of alighting on little sticks and twigs just out of the water, and mistaking the heads of snakes, which probably swam there for the purpose, for such twigs, they are instantly caught by the snakes.

On the 30th and 31st of May, 1839, immense cloud-like swarms of Dragon-flies passed in rapid succession over the German town of Weimar and its neighborhood. They were the Libellula depressa, a species which, in general, is rather scarce in that part of Germany. The general direction of this migration was from south by west to north by east. The insects were in a vigorous state, and some of the flocks flew as high as 150 feet above the level of the River Ilm.

At Gottingen on June the 1st, at Eisenach on May the 30th and 31st of the same year, swarms of the same species were seen flying from east to west; and at Calais, June 14th, similar clouds, though of a different species, were noticed on their way toward the Netherlands. At Halle, also, on May 30th, a short time before a thunder-storm, swarms of the Dragon-fly, L. quadrimaculata, were seen by Dr. Buhle, flying very rapidly from south to north. The L. quadrimaculata is not generally found in the neighborhood of Halle.

This wonderful migration, for it is a phenomenon of rare occurrence, extended from the 51st to the 52d degree of latitude, and was observed within 27° 40′ and 30° east of Ferro. But the instance of Calais renders it probable that it extended over a great part of Europe.

Another migration of Dragon-flies was observed at Weimar on the 28th of June, 1816. The insects, in this instance, belonged also to the L. depressa. They were taken then, as were they also in 1839, for locusts by the common people, and looked upon as the harbingers of famine and war.

In these migrations they followed the direction of the

rivers, with the currents. They did not, however, always keep close by them, since they must spread over wide districts in order to subsist.

To account for the great multiplication of these insects, in the year 1839, is by no means difficult. From the beginning to the 21st of May (in the latter part of which month, it will be remembered, they appeared), the weather had been exceedingly rainy; rivers and lakes overflowed their banks and inundated immense areas of low grounds, whereby myriads of the larvæ and pupæ (which live entirely in water) of the Libellulæ, which, under other circumstances, would have remained in deep water, and become the prey of their many enemies, fish, etc., were brought into shallow water, and hot weather following, from May 21st to May 29th, converted these shallows and swamps into true hotbeds for them. Their development into perfect insects was thus rendered rapid, so that, somewhat earlier than usual, they appeared, and in far greater, their undiminished, numbers; and, being very voracious in their appetite, as well in the imago as the pupa state, they were obliged to migrate immediately to satisfy it.[474]

Mr. Gosse observed in Jamaica, Oct. 8th, 1845, a swarm of Dragon-flies in the air, about twenty feet from the level of the ground. They floated and danced about, over the stream of water that runs through Blue-fields, much in the manner of gnats, which they resembled also in their immense numbers.[475] And Rev. T. J. Bowen, on one occasion, in descending the Ogun River (in the Yoruba country, Africa), met millions of Dragon-flies, about one-fourth of an inch in length, making their way up the country by following the course of the stream.[476]

It is commonly said among us, that if a Dragon-fly be killed, there will soon be a death in the family of the killer.