FLIES AND THEIR WATER BABIES 59 



formed for biting, and they live on the juices 

 of the flowers. 



But their sisters, who have the thread-like 

 antennae, are not so harmless. They are 

 armed with a set of piercing lancets and a 

 sucking tube, and they are fond of sticking 

 their lancets into your skin and sucking your 

 blood. The Grey Gnat is really a mosquito, 

 and her bite is very painful, but she is not so 

 harmful as her relations who live beyond the 

 seas. 



CHAPTER VIII 



FLIES AND THEIR WATER BABIES 



NOT all the baby Gnats that pop out from 

 the little trap-doors in the egg-raft into the 

 water live to become graceful two-winged flies 

 like Mother Gnat. As might be expected, 

 quantities of the tiny things fall victims to 

 the hungry monsters of the pool. Not only 

 do the water beetles and all the ugly grubs 

 that live below the surface snap them up 

 whenever they have the chance, but the larva 

 of a fly, very much like the Gnats themselves, 

 devours the poor things too. 



