STATES OF INSECTS. (Hgg.) 83 
are extruded one by one. They are so small at the base 
in proportion to their length that it would be difficult to 
make them stand singly upright on a solid surface, much 
more on the water. How then does the gnat contrive 
to support the first egg perpendicularly until she has 
glued another to it—these two until she has fixed a 
third, and so on until a sufficient number is fastened to- 
gether to form a base capable of sustaining them in their 
perpendicular position? This is her process. She fixes 
her four anterior legs upon a piece of leaf, or a blade of 
grass, and projects her tail over the water. She then 
crosses her two hind legs, and in the inner angle which 
they form, retains and supports the first laid egg, as it 
proceeds from the anus. In like manner she also sup- 
ports the second, third, &c., all of which adhere to each 
other by means of their glutinous coating, until she feels 
that a sufficient number are united to give a stable base 
to her little bark; she then uncrosses her legs, and 
merely employs them to retain the mass until it is of the 
required size and shape, when she flies away, and leaves 
it to its fate floating upon the water?. 
It may not be out of place to mention here a remark- 
able circumstance which not. seldom attends a kind of 
water-scorpion (Naucoris) occasionally to be met with 
in collections of Chinese insects. Its back is often co- 
vered with a group of rather large eggs, closely arranged; 
but whether these are its own eggs or those of some 
large species of water-mite (Hydrachna) has not been 
clearly ascertamed. On the former supposition, the ovi- 
positor must be remarkably long and flexile to enable 
the animal to place the eggs on its back. In confirma- 
* Reaum. iv. 615—. #. xliv. f. 2—7. 
GZ 
