144 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



Fig. 134.— Gnat (magnified). 



Fig. 134 . — Larva (magnified.) 



the dead and decaying bodies of animals, -which soon would 

 taint our atmosphere. Thej are gifted with wonderful powers 

 for effecting this object. The young are brought forth ahve, 

 and the femalo will give birth to twenty thousand young.* 

 Hence the assertion of Linnaeus, with regard to Musca 

 vomitoria, that three of these flies would devour a dead horse 

 as quickly as a lion would, is perhaps not much overstramed. 



So far these insects are the benefactors of man. Let us 

 now regard them as his tormentors, or as the cause of irritation 

 and suffering to many of his most valuable quadnipeds. 



According to Arthur Young, flies — that is, the common 

 House-flies — constitute " the first of torments in Spain, Italy, 

 and the olive districts of France. It is not," continues he, 

 "that they bite, sting, or hurt, but they buzz, tease, and 

 wony. Your mouth, eyes, ears, and nose are fiill of them ; 

 they swarm on every eatable; fruit, sugar, milk, everything is 

 attacked by them."t Humboldt, in his Personal }sarrative, 

 frequently mentions " these noxious insects, which, in spite of 

 their littleness, act an important part in the economy of 

 Nature." The annoyance occasioned by the jNIosquito is 

 noticed by every traveller in the southern parts of Europe 

 and the northern parts of Asia and America/ Dr. Clarke 

 states, in his journey along the frontier of Cuxassia, that the 

 Cossack soldiers " pass the night upon the bare earth, pro- 



* Westivood, rage 569, on the authority of De Geer and Reaumur, 

 t Travels, vol. ii. page 35. 



