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.
When children meet with the funnel-shaped pitfalls of the larva of the Ant-lion, _Myrmeleon formicales_, they are wont to put their heads close to the ground and softly sing _ooloo-ooloo-ooloo_, till the larva, mistaking the sound for that of a fly escaping his trap, throws up a shower of sand to bring its supposed victim down again.
Ant-lions are held in great esteem in many sections of our country, so much so that they are not suffered to be in any way injured.
In a work called "_Ephemerides des curieux de la nature_," is an observation apparently relative to this family of insects, which, if true, would be very extraordinary indeed. It is there said, that in the town of Czierck and its environs, there were seen in 1679 some unknown winged insects which, with their stings, mortally wounded both men and beasts. They fell abruptly upon men without provocation, and attached themselves to the naked parts of the body: the sting was immediately followed by a hard tumor, and if care was not taken of the wound within the first three hours, by hastily extracting the poison from it, the patient died in a few days after. These insects killed five and thirty men in this diocese, and a great number of oxen and horses. Toward the end of September, the winds brought some of them into a small town on the confines of Silesia and Poland; but they were so feeble on account of the cold, that they did but little mischief there. Eight days after, they all disappeared. These animals have all of them four wings, six feet, and carry under the belly a long sting provided with a sheath, which opens and separates in two. They make a very sharp noise in attacking men. Some of them are ornamented with yellow circles (_Sirex gigas_, or _S. fusicornis_? M. Latreille), and others are similar to them in all respects, but they have the back altogether black, and their stings are more venomous (_S. spectrum_ or _juvencus_?). The author of these observations gives an extended description of the species with the yellow circles, which he accompanies with figures, in which the character of _Sirex_ may be clearly distinguished.[477]