168 HISTORY OF 



it, if possibly she can. After this she draws back 

 her stings into their sheath, which she applies to 

 the wound in order to extract, as through a reed, 

 the juices which she finds enclosed. This is the 

 implement with which the gnat performs her 

 work in the summer, for during the winter she 

 has no manner of occasion for it. Then she 

 ceases to eat, and spends all that tedious season 

 either in quarries or in caverns, which she aban- 

 dons at the return of summer, and flies about in 

 search after some commodious ford, or standing 

 water, where she may produce her progeny, 

 which would be soon washed away and lost by 

 the too rapid motion of any running stream. 

 The little brood are sometimes so numerous, that 

 the very water is tinged according to the colour 

 of the species, as green, if they be green, and of 

 a sanguine hue, if they be red. 



These are circumstances sufficiently extraordi- 

 nary in the life of this little animal ; but it offers 

 something still more curious in the method of 

 its propagation. However similar insects of the 

 gnat kind are in their appearance, yet they dif- 

 fer widely from each other in the manner in 

 which they are brought forth ; for some are ovi- 

 parous, and are produced from eggs ; some are 

 viviparous, and come forth in their most perfect 

 form ; some are males, and unite with the female; 

 some are females, requiring the impregnation of 

 the male j some are of neither sex, yet still pro- 

 duce young, without any copulation whatsoever. 

 This is one of the strangest discoveries in all na- 

 tural history ! A gnat separated from the rest of 



