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. They are gifted with wonderful powers 

 for effecting this object* The young are brought forth alive, 

 and the female 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 overstrained. 



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 quadrupeds. 



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 

 worry. Your mouth, eyes, ears, and nose are full of them ; 

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

 attacked by them."f Humboldt, in his Personal Narrative, 

 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 Mosquito 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 Circassia, that the 

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



* Westwood, page 569, on tho authority of De Geer and Reaumur, 

 t Travels, vol. ii. page 35. 



