LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD, 139 



Mary. Yes, I see it. 



JLunt M. This little sucker, which, you see, 

 is finer than a hair, has enclosed within it five 

 separate lancets, several of them having teeth 

 on one side. These lancets cannot be seen 

 without the aid of a powerful microscope, and 

 it would of course be utterly impossible for the 

 hand of man to form any thing so small ; yet 

 they are all fashioned with the most exact 

 nicety. With these it pierces the skin, and then 

 throws a poisonous fluid into the wound ; it is 

 supposed for the purpose of thinning the blood, 

 and rendering it easier to suck. 



Musquetoes require very little food, and it is 

 believed that when they cannot get blood, they 

 are satisfied with sucking the juices of flowers 

 and fruits. It is said indeed that the male 

 musqueto never tastes blood. 



In marshy places musquetoes are often very 

 abundant, and have sometimes been seen rising 

 in columns from four to five feet in width, and 

 to the height of forty or fifty feet ; looking so 

 much like thick columns of smoke, that persons 

 at a little distance have given the alarm that 

 there was a fire in the neighborhood. 



They are, of course, very annoying to the in- 



