140 DRAGON FLIES VS. MOSQUITOES. 



tliem. Soon they awake, at the call of Nature, to another 

 element and another sphere of activity. 



It may shock the aesthetic sensibilities of the general 

 public to speak of anything beautiful or fairy-like in the 

 natural history of the mosquito; but really such terms are 

 truly applicable when the mosquito pupa begins to trans- 

 form. Let me briefly describe the process as entomolo- 

 gists have observed it. These little fish-like larvse have 

 spent their first stage of being swimming about in stag- 

 nant water, devouring the living atoms that swarm there- 

 in. They reach their second stage by casting off the larval 

 skin and becoming pupte. In this stage they remain rolled 

 up like a ball, and float at the surface of the water for the 

 purpose of breathing through the two respiratory tubes on 

 the top of their backs. If disturbed by any unwonted 

 agitation of the water, they suddenly uncurl their bodies 

 and whirl over and over from side to side. This Turn 

 Verein existence, spent with no sustaining nutriment but 

 atmospheric air, terminates in the course of a few days. 



Now the little water tumblers are ready for another 

 transformation. The skin splits on the back between the 

 breathing tubes, and a little boat is thus formed, as grace- 

 fully curved at the bow and poop as the imperial barge of 

 Cleopatra. Out of this fairy bark there suddenly issues 

 a winged creature. The head, the body, the limbs, burst 

 from the opening in the hard skin. The slender legs are 

 raised on the edges of the empty bark until, spreading its 

 wings and pluming itself for flight into sunlight and air, 

 the insect rises, while by the reflex of its upward bound 

 its tiny bark is overset and sinks beneath the wave. If 

 the poet or artist were to catch this vision at the moment 

 the insect leaves its abandoned l)ark and stretches its wings 



