THE GNAT AND TIPULA. 



825 



CHAPTEtt CXCV. 



OF THE GNAT AND TIPULA. 



THERE are two insccf s which entirely re- 

 semble each other in their form, and yet wide- 

 ly differ in their habits, manners, and propa- 

 Eition. Those who have seen the Tipula, or 

 ong-lcgs, and the larger kind of Gnat, have 

 most probably mistaken the one for the other; 

 they have often accused the tipula, a harmless 

 insect, of depredations made by the gnat, and 

 the innocent have suffered for the guilty ; in- 

 deed the differences in their form are so very 

 minute, that it often requires the assistance of 

 a microscope to distinguish the one from the 

 other : they are both mounted on long legs, 

 both furnished with two wings and a slender 

 body : their heads are large, and they seem to 

 be hump-backed ; the chief and only dif- 

 ference, therefore, is, that the tipula wants a 

 trunk, while the gnat has a large one, which 

 it often exerts to very mischievous purposes. 

 The tipula is a harmless peaceful insect, that 

 offers injury to nothing ; the gnat is sangui- 

 nary and prcdaceous, ever seeking out for a 

 place in which to bury its trunk, and pump- 

 ing up the blood from the animal in large 

 quantities. 



The gnat proceeds from a little worm, 

 whicli is usually seen at the bottom of stand- 

 ing waters. The manner iti which the insect 

 lays its eggs is particularly curious ; after 

 having laid the proper number on the surface 

 of the water, it surrounds them with a kind 

 of unctuous matter, which prevents them from 

 sinking, but at the same lime fastens them 

 with a thread to the bottom, to prevent their 

 floating away, at the mercy of every breeze, 

 from a place, the warmth of which is proper 

 for their production, to any other, where the 

 wnier may bo too cold, or the animals' ene- 

 mies too numerous. Thus the insects, in 

 their egg state, resemble a buoy, which is fix- 

 ed by an anchor. As they come to maturity 

 they sink deeper: and at last, when they 

 leave the egg as worms, they creep at the 

 bottom. They now make themselves lodg- 



ments of cement, which they fasten to some 

 solid body at the very bottom of the water, 

 unless, by accident, they meet with a pic-re of 

 chalk, which being of a soft and pliant nature, 

 gives them an opportunity of sinking a retreat 

 for themselves, where nothing but the claws 

 of a cray-fish can possibly molest them. The 

 worm afterwards changes its form. It ap- 

 pears with a large head, and a tail invested 

 with hair, and moistened with an oleaginous 

 liquor, which she makes use of as a cork to 

 sustain her head in the air, and her tail in the 

 water, and to transport her from one place to 

 another. When the oil, with which her tail is 

 moistened, begins to grow dry, she discharges 

 out of her mouth an unctuous humour, which 

 she sheds all over her tail, by virtue whereof 

 she is enabled to transport herself where she 

 pleases, without being either wet or, any ways 

 incommoded by the water. The gnat, in her 

 second state, is, properly speaking, in her form 

 a nymph, which is an introduction or entrance 

 into a new life. In the first place, she divests 

 herself of her second skin ; in .the next, she 

 resigns her eyes, her antennae, and her tail ; 

 in short, she actually seems to expire. How- 

 ever, from the spoils of the amphibious ani- 

 mal, a little winged insect cuts the air. whose 

 every part is active to the last degree, and 

 whose whole structure is the just object of 

 our admiration. Its little head is adorned 

 with a plume of feathers, and its whole body 

 invested with scales and hair, to secure it 

 from any wet or dust. She makes trial of 

 the activity of her wings, bv rubbing them 

 either against her body, or her broad side- 

 bags, which keep her in an equilibrium. 

 The furbelow, or litile border of fine feathers, 

 which graces her wings, is very curious, and 

 strikes the eye in the most agreeable man- 

 ner. There is nothing, however, of greater 

 importance to the gnat than her trunk, and 

 that weak implement may justly be deemed 

 one of nature's master-pieces. It is so very 



