Twelfth Report of the State Entomologist 333 



The individual egg is of an elongate-oval form, rather pointed at the 

 upper end, broader at the lower. They are deposited in a mass, on the 

 surface of the water, in the form somewhat of a boat, and left to float 

 freely about. The little egg-boat, not exceeding a tenth of an inch in 

 length, yet bearing nearly a hundred lives, is built in the following 

 manner : The insect takes her position on some object in the water — a 

 floating leaf or stick it may be — holding to it by her anterior legs, while 

 her long abdomen rests on the water with its tip slightly elevated. 

 Crossing her posterior pair of legs (which are much longer than her body) 

 behind her in the form of an x, she places an egg in a perpendicular 

 position at the point of crossing — the inner point, nearest the tip of her 

 abdomen : this forms the keel of the boat. To this two eggs are next 

 attached in the form of a triangle. The eggs are coated with a 

 glutinous matter, causing them to adhere closely and firmly to one 

 another. Successive additions are made to these in a gradually enlarging 

 outline, as regulated by the angle or curve formed by the legs. When 

 the boat is about half built, the legs are uncrossed and placed side by 

 side I underneath for better support, and in this position the remaining 

 portion of the boat is completed in a symmetrical form, although 

 unaided by the eye and only guided by the delicacy of touch. When 

 finished, the supporting legs are withdrawn, and the tiny craft is launched,, 

 and left to be driven about hither and thither by the winds, yet ever 

 drifting securely, without the sHghtest risk of sinking to the bottom or of 

 being overturned. For experiment's sake, you may place one in a basin 

 of water and pour gallons of water on it, without being able to overturn 

 it. You may even thrust it by force to the bottom of the vessel, whence, 

 as soon as released, it will rise to the surface, right side up and not hold- 

 ing in its concavity a particle of fluid. It is a veritable life-boat. 



The Larval Mosquito. 

 The eggs hatch ordinarily in from two to three days, dependent, of 

 course, on the temperature of the water. The larvce that they produce 

 are familiar to all who have been in the habit of using rain-water during 

 the spring or summer months which had been exposed to the open air 

 for a few days. Children living in the country often know them under 

 the appropriate names of " wigglers " or " wrigglers," drawn from their 

 peculiar jerking motions as they come to the surface of the water to 

 draw in a supply of air and to hang motionless, head downward, for 

 awhile, or with the same motion descend to the bottom to feed. They 

 have a distinct rounded head with mouth-parts, antennae and ciliated ap- 



