56 MICROSCOPIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 



and perfect insect ; and, however low these minutiae of 

 nature may be held in the estimation of the unthinking 

 mass of mankind, this most elaborate proceeding renders 

 it not improbable that they may be deemed by Him choice 

 and exquisite productions. These mysterious operations 

 of nature, as detected and unravelled by microscopes, are 

 surely GRAND AND CAPITAL SUBJECTS FOR OBSERVATION. 

 I should pity the man who scorned to be amused by 

 inspecting these MARVELLOUS METAMORPHOSES, and 

 disdained to be informed of the manner in which they 

 are effected. What a magnificent spectacle must such 

 a transformation present in the solar or gas achromatic 

 microscope, exhibited to a whole company with all the accu- 

 racy and fidelity which the pictures formed by those instru- 

 ments are capable of displaying ! 



The colour of the larva when young is a faint and 

 scarcely perceptible yellow ; but as it approaches the 

 change, it assumes a richer and deeper colouring, and all 

 its internal parts acquire their definite forms and tints, as 

 exhibited in the drawing. 



The natural history of this identical species of culex is 

 unknown, not having been noticed by any British writer 

 on entomology. The intense interest, however, which, 

 under the microscope, it excites in the observer, will 

 always render it an object of value. Other species of the 

 gnat are well known ; and a description of the common 

 gnat, from the egg to the perfect insect, has been illus- 

 trated by Swammerdam, in his work entitled Biblia 

 Naturce, sive Historia Insectorum* ; in which are two 



* Tom. II. Tab. xxxi. et xxxii., 1737 ; also Reaumur's Hist. Insect. 



