There is another insect something like the dragon fly that looks as if it might sting. It has a long, wire-like tail that it can curl over its back and poke into a hole in a tree. This is the ichneumon fly (ik-noo'mon). It often stands on the bark of a tree exactly like a woodpecker, so motionless that you can snapshot it with a kodak. It has very long, jointed legs and feelers, and one kind has a body that flares out behind like a brass horn. Some people think the ichneumon fly bores those holes in trees. But the hole is made by some boring beetle. At the bottom of each hole is a grub that feeds on the wood. The body of that soft, fat grub is just the place the ichneumon fly likes to lay an egg in. Then, when the baby hatches, it eats the grub. The fly will go all over a tree and poke its flexible wire egg-layer into countless holes. This clever creature eats very little, but spends most of its time laying eggs in the larva of moths, butterflies and beetles.

Sometimes you may see an insect that looks like a small dragon fly, but that flaps its four gauze wings, in flying. It lays eggs in tiny sand deserts in the woods, on river banks and sea shores. An innocent looking flier it is, but its larva is a true beast of prey—the cunning, flesh-eating ant-lion. The egg hatches into a clumsy, humped, bug-like creature, with spiny hairs to which wet sand sticks. It has six digging legs, and jaws like a mouse trap. It makes a round pit about as big as would be made by pressing the bottom of a small teacup into the sand. When an ant or other little creeper runs over the edge of the pit, it just naturally slides down hill. Before it can climb out again it is snapped up by the half buried ant-lion.

Dragon Fly. It has no sting and is harmless to man. It feeds on insects which it catches while on the wing.

Another sand-dweller with a lair is the tiger beetle. It is brave in a shiny armor of copper, golden green, sand color or pea green with white spots, and is striped and spotted like a tiger or leopard. Its jaws are long, horny, hooked and toothed, and they shut together like the blades of scissors. The larva of the tiger beetles dig pits in which they lie, mouth and eyes out, snapping up all small insects that come their way.