264 INSECT WATER TRESPASSERS. 



THE GNAT. 



There are many more insects which are water 

 trespassers, but our space warns us to be brief. We 

 will therefore be content with two examples of insects 

 which are water trespassers in their larval states ; but 

 which, when they have attained their perfect condi- 

 tion, would soon die if they fell into the water and 

 could not extricate themselves. 



Perhaps the best-known, and certainly the most 

 plentiful of these insects, is the common Gnat (Culex 

 pipiens), so well known from the beautiful plumy 

 antennae of the male, and the venomous proboscis of 

 the female. With the perfect insect we have nothing 

 to do, it being a denizen of the air and not of water ; 

 and we are at present only concerned with it in its 

 earliest forms. 



It begins its water trespassing career while it is 

 still in the egg form ; and I cannot but think that this 

 is the most curious of its three, or perhaps four, diffe- 

 rent modes of trespassing, each of which will be very 

 briefly described. 



The egg itself very much resembles a skittle in 

 form ; and, if placed in water, would sink and never 

 be hatched, for want of warmth and air. Yet it must 

 be placed in the water, because the larva when hatched, 

 finds its food in the water, and on land is absolutely 

 helpless ; so that if it were hatched ashore, it could 

 never make its way to the water. 



The solution of this rather difficult problem is 



