INSECT LIFE 171 



The gnats do not always dance in parties large or 

 small. A single gnat will rise and drop within a foot 

 or so of one's face for several minutes at a stretch ; 

 then perhaps sink to the ground, take a short rest, and 

 spring up to dance again. Though we can interrupt, 

 or even disperse, a party of winter gnats by walking 

 through them and waving them aside with the arms 

 they seem to have little fear or consciousness of our 

 existence. Soon they will reassemble at the spot 

 where we disturbed them. They are not on the alert 

 like a house fly or a butterfly. At most, perhaps, they 

 are a little more conscious of our presence than would 

 be the water flies or ephemeridce, such as " duns " and 

 " March browns " of the angler. Our forefathers, watch- 

 ing the dance of gnat and of spinner or full May-fly, 

 by the river, would say without hesitation that these 

 insects were simply enjoying an ethereal exercise in the 

 sun and air. " Mark," they would argue, " the goodness 

 and kindness displayed in all created things, and how 

 even a gnat can enjoy to the full its little span of 

 life ! " But a generation ago we changed our views 

 about these matters. We come to see in such a 

 dance only a display, a device to preserve and increase 

 life ; the dance would be then merely utilitarian court- 

 ship, a practical search for mates. 



Is it, however, only this practical search for mates, 

 an advertisement of gnat to admiring gnat ? This is 

 what we have never proved. Kirby and Spence long 

 ago pointed out that the great majority of these gnats 



