554 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



place in which to bury its trunk, and pumping 

 up the blood from the animal in large quantities. 

 The gnat proceeds from a little worm, which 

 is usually seen at the bottom of standing wa- 

 ters. The manner in 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 mat- 

 ter, which prevents them from sinking, but at 

 the same time 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 water may be too 

 cold, or the animals' enemies too numerous. 

 Thus the insects, in their egg state resemble 

 a buoy, which is fixed by an anchor. As they 

 come to maturity they sink deeper ; and at last 

 when they leave the egg as worms, they creep 

 to the bottom. 1 They now make themselves 

 lodgments of cements, which they fasten to 

 some solid body at the very bottom of the wa- 

 ter, unless by accident they meet with a piece 

 of chalk, which being of a soft and pliant na- 

 ture, gives them an opportunity of sinking a 



1 We are hardly acquainted with any other than the 

 aerial life of the gnat, yet its aquatic life is also very in- 

 teresting. It is upon or under the water that the gnat 

 is in its stages of egg, larva, and nymph, that is, during 

 almost the whole of its existence, and that an existence 

 which in no way annoys man. 



The eggs of this insect have the lengthened form of 

 an olive ; their own weight is sufficient to sink them, 

 but 250 or 300 united, and stuck together with a natural 

 glue in the shape of a boat, float on the surface of the 

 water till the larvae come out of them. The part of this 

 agglomeration which touches the water is convex, its 

 upper part concave; and this skiff is so well balanced, 

 that the most furious tempest would not upset it. The 

 learned Kirby made the experiment himself, by placing 

 a dozen of these little boats in a glass half full of water; 

 he then violently troubled the water in the glass, by 

 pouring in water from a pitcher, without being able to 

 succeed in sinking these little boats, of which riot one 

 contained a single drop of water when he had ended his 

 experiments. 



The manner in which the gnat constructs this float- 

 ing apparatus is very singular. This insect, as -every 

 one knows, is provided with six legs ; it places its four 

 front-feet on a dead leaf, a twig, or any other floating 

 substance ; its body thus remains horizontally on the sur- 

 face of the water, with the exception of the last segment 

 of its abdomen, which it keeps a little raised ; it then ex- 

 tends its long hind legs, and crosses them in the shape 

 of the letter X, and thus forms a support for the first eggs 

 it is about to lay. Each egg, when laid, is enclosed in a 

 kind of glue ; the female supports the first in a vertical 

 position till the second egg is placed by its side, and 

 glued to it ; the third forms a triangle, and so on. When 

 the boat is completed, the gnat leaves it on the water, 

 and flies away, to end, in a short time, that existence of 

 which it has fulfilled the most important task. 



Boat of gnat' s egs. 



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 mois- 

 tened, 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 anywise 

 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 di- 

 vests herself of her second skin ; in the next, 

 she resigns her eyes, her antennas, and her 

 tail ; in short, she actually seems to expire. 

 However, from the spoils of the amphibious 

 animal, 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 ac- 

 tivity of her wings, by rubbing them either 

 against her body, or her broad side-bags, which 

 keep her in an equilibrium. The furbelow, or 

 little border of fine feathers, \vhich graces her 

 wings, is very curious, and strikes the eye in 

 the most agreeable manner. 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 small, that the extremity of it can 

 scarcely be discerned through the best micro- 

 scope that can be procured. That part which 

 is at first obvious to the eye, is nothing but a 

 long scaly sheath under the throat. At near 

 the distance of two-thirds of it, there is an 

 aperture, through which the insect darts out 

 four stings, and afterwards retracts them. 

 One of which, however sharp and active it 

 may be, is no more than the case in which 

 the other three lie concealed, and run in a long 

 groove. The sides of these stings are shar- 

 pened like two edged swords; they are like- 

 wise barbed, and have a vast number of cut- 

 ting teeth towards the point, which turns up 

 like a hook, and is fine beyond expression. 

 When all these darts are stuck into the flesh 

 of animals, sometimes one after another, and 

 sometimes all at once, the blood and humours 

 of the adjacent parts must unavoidably be ex- 

 travasated ; upon which a tumour must conse- 

 quently ensue, the little orifice whereof is 

 closed up by the compression of the external 

 air. When the gnat, by the point of her case, 



