54 INSECT LIFE IN POND AND STREAM 



such tiny things can find to eat. They never 

 appear to catch anything, although as they 

 hang upside down from, the top of the pond 

 they are always wriggling and twisting about 

 like a lot of little acrobats, and lashing the 

 water with their funny whiskers. 



Now really, as they are going through all 

 these antics, the greedy little things are feeding 

 all the time, but the things they eat are much 

 too small for our eyes to see. As they sway 

 and bend about, their lashing whiskers make 

 tiny currents in the water, and sweep the 

 invisible atoms with which the pond is swarm- 

 ing into their tiny mouths. For the children 

 of the Grey Gnat do not live in clear, pure 

 water, but in stagnant ponds and ditches 

 where there is always plenty of food for them 

 to eat. 



As they are growing, the Gnat larvae 

 moult several times, as most young insects 

 do, and each time they wriggle out of their 

 skins they are a little bit bigger than they 

 were before. The last time they go through 

 this performance, not only do they change 

 their skins, but they change themselves too 

 the larvae disappear, and in their place 

 are strange-looking objects, with very small 



