BRITISH BLOODSUCKERS 245 



case (which opens by a slit), raises herself feebly 

 and awkwardly on her spindle shanks, and with- 

 draws her tail from its swathing bandage. She 

 has grown meanwhile into a very different creature 

 from the aquatic larva : observe her long plumed 

 antennae, her curious mouth-organs, her six hairy 

 legs, and her delicate gauze-like wings, all of them 

 wholly distinct from her former self, and utterly 

 unrepresented by anything in the swimming in- 

 sect. It is a marvellous transformation this, from 

 a darting aquatic with rudder and tail, to a flying 

 terrestrial and aerial animal, with legs and wings 

 and manifold adapted appendages. At first, one 

 would say, the new-fledged mosquito can hardly 

 know herself. 



In nature, however, nothing is ever wasted. 

 The pupa-case, you would suppose, is now quite 

 useless. Not a bit of it. Our lady utilises it at once 

 as a boat to float upon. She plants her long legs 

 upon it gingerly, as you see in No. 8, where you 

 can still make out the shape of the tail and the horn- 

 like breathing-tubes of the pupa. Thus does she 

 rise on stepping-stones of her dead self to higher 

 things, in a more literal sense than the poet con- 

 templated. You observe her above, in her natural 

 size, and below much magnified. Notice her beau- 

 tiful gauzy wings, marked with hairy veins, her 

 pretty plume-like antennae, her spider-like jointed 

 legs, and her hump of a body. She stands now, 

 irresolute, meditating flight and wondering whether 

 she dare unfold her light pinions to the breeze. 

 Soon, confidence and strength will come to her ; 



