TWO-WINGED INSECTS. 



295 



502. The Musquito family are remarkable in many re- 

 spects, but chiefly for the peculiar mode of their meta- 

 morphosis. The common Musquito, when first hatched, 

 is an inhabitant of the water, and is, from its antic and 

 rapid motions, called a Wriggler. In Fig. 227 you see 

 the animal of its natural size, and also as it looks when 

 magnified. Though it lives in the water, it is not like a 

 fish, for it has no gills. It is more like a whale, for it is 

 obliged to come occasionally to the surface to breathe. 

 Its breathing apparatus is near its tail. The air is taken 

 in through a tube made of hairs, represented at A. After 

 the insect arrives at its proper size it comes to the sur- 

 face with its back upward, which gapes open, as in the 

 case of the Cicada (493), and the winged insect emerges, 

 as seen in an enlarged representation in Fig. 228. It 



Fig. 228. 



rests upon its cast-off skin as a boat, while it unfolds and 

 expands rts wings, and then flies off. Great care is re- 

 quired in this operation, as there is danger that the in- 



