These whirlers lay their eggs on leaves above water. The larvæ spin silk pupa-cases which hang on leaves, or on stems, above the top of the water.
These and other water-beetles live in ponds or very quiet streams, not in swift water.
I hope the peep you have had at beetle-life will make you wish to study it more. Study not so much in books, as out-of-doors for yourself.
Of what use are beetles? Wise people have not yet found out very much about the use of beetles. Some of them, as you have read, devour or bury spoiled things, that it would be bad to have lying about on the ground. They help to keep the world clean.
Some of them eat insects that harm plants. Some of them make good food for fish, birds, and other creatures. But very many of the beetles do much harm to plants, clothes, and other valuable things. On the whole, I fear that beetles are pretty rather than useful!
LESSON XXXII.
WHAT A FISHERMAN TOLD.
One day, on the sea-beach, I saw a man mending a net. He took from the net two small things like shells. They clung to the meshes of the net. They were white and hard. They looked like two or three shells put one inside the other.
The fisherman said, “There are in the world more of these things than there are leaves on the trees, I think.”
“Where do they grow, Mr. Fisherman?”