TWO-WINGED INSECTS. 



295 



I 502. The Musquito family are remarkable in many re- 

 spects, but chiefly for the peculiar mode of their meta- 

 morphosis. The common Musquito, when first hatched, 

 is an inhabitant of the water, and is, from its antic and 

 rapid motions, called a Wiiggler. In Fig. 227 you see 

 the animal of its natural size, and also as it looks when 

 magnified. Though it lives in the water, it is not like a 

 fish, for it has no gills. It is more like a whale, for it is 

 obliged to come occasionally to the surface to breathe. 

 Its breathing apparatus is near its tail. The air is taken 

 in through a tube made of hairs, represented at A. After 

 the insect arrives at its proper size it comes to the sur- 

 face with its back upward, which gapes . open, as in the 

 case of the Cicada (§ 493), and the winged insect emerges, 

 as seen in an enlarged representation in Fig. 228. It 



Fig. 228. 



rests upon its cast-ofi" skin as a boat, while it unfolds and 

 expands its wings, and then flies ofi". Great care is re- 

 quired in this operation, as there is danger that the in« 



N 2 



