GNATS 



353 



and holds her long hind-legs crossed behind her. With these she 

 takes each egg in turn, and places it just in the right position in 

 the boat which she is forming, fastening it to those next it with a 

 kind of natural glue. Before long her task is completed, and she 

 flies away; and the egg-boat is left floating on the surface of the 

 water. 



Numbers of these egg-boats may be found in the summer-time 

 in almost any rain-water butt. They are not very large, and you 

 might think at first that they were only floating smuts. But if 



Gnat, i, Eggs; 2, Larva; 3, Pupa; 4, Perfect Insect emerging from case 



you take one out and look at it carefully you will see that it is 

 made up of two or three hundred eggs, shaped like tiny skittles, 

 and fastened closely together, side by side. 



If one of these little boats is plunged under water it floats up 

 to the surface again. If it is turned over it rights itself immediately. 

 It is a kind of self-righting life-boat, and long before we ever 

 thought of building such boats, nature had given us the pattern in 

 the egg-boat of the gnat. 



After this little boat has been floating on the surface of the 

 water for a few days a tiny door opens at the bottom of each egg, 

 and out come the grubs into the water. They are very odd little 

 creatures, with large heads and long slender bodies, and curious 

 tufts of hair near the end of their tails. 



These tufts of hair indicate breathing organs. A gnat grub, 



( M 868 ) 



2A 



