THE BOATS THE GNATS BlTILD. 



Did you ever hear about the wonderful boats the gnats build if 

 They lay their eggs in the water, and the eggs float until it is 

 time for them to hatch. You can see these little egg rafts on 

 almost any pool in the summer. 



The eggs are so heavy that one alone would sink. The canning 

 mother fastens them all together until they form a hollow boa''. 



It will not upset even if it is 

 filled with watei'. The upper 

 end ui these egg-, ib pointed, 



^3 



and looks very much like a "^»- 

 powdei'-flask. 

 One egg is glued to another, pointed end 

 up, until the boat is finished. And how 

 many eggs do you think it takes? From two hundred and fifty to 

 three hundred. When the young are hatched they always come 

 from the under side, leaving the empty boat afloat. 



These eggs are very, very small. First they are white, then 

 green, then a dark gray. They swim just like little fishes, and 

 hatch in two days. Then they change again to a kind of sheath.^ 

 In another week this sheath bursts open and lets out a winged 

 mosquito. It is all ready for work. There- are so many of them 

 born in a summer that, were it not for the birds and larger insects, 

 we should be " eaten up alive." 



1 Chrysalis, 



