54 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
Yes, Grod made everything that has life, and every creature was 
made for some good purpose, though we may not in every case dis¬ 
cover that purpose. Mosquitoes are very excellent food for the dragon¬ 
fly, and the tiny eggs are greedily swallowed up by the little fishes 
in the pool. 
MOSQUITOES AND THEIR BOATS 
HE little mosquitoes that are so annoying to us during the hot 
A months of the year, have long bodies shaped like a tube. When 
they lie very still, their wings are crossed in ai peculiar mianner. When 
we are able to examine these little creatures through a powerful glass, 
we find them really quite pretty. The edges of their wings are covered 
with scales shaped like long plates and delicately marked, very much 
like fishes. Their feelers seem 1 to be made of the finest feathers, and 
their eyes are so big that they cover the whole head. They look like 
lace, and their color changes from) green to light red when exposed to 
the sunlight. 
When a mosquito gets ready to bite a person, he uses a trunk, or 
“proboscis,” resembling the lancets to be found in a doctor’s case. 
This trunk is a tiny tube, split from end to end so that it can he easily 
opened. Inside is a great bundle of stings that looks like needles. 
They are very sharp, wiith five points, and bent like a crochet-needle. 
They convey a drop of poison to the blood of the person that the mos¬ 
quito has chosen as his victim. When stung by a mosquito, it is 
always best to give the little pest time to draw the hooks out. The 
sting then is not nearly so severe as when the insect leaves the five 
poison-hooks in the flesh. 
Now, these troublesome little insects are very remarkable boat- 
builders. They lay their eggs in the water and these eggs float until 
the time comes for them to hatch. If you watch very closely, you may 
see these tiny egg rafts, on any pool on a bright summer’s day. 
These eggs are so heavy that one would not float by itself, so the 
wise mother joins them all together until they make a hollow boat, 
which will not upset even though filled with water. The upper end 
of these eggs is pointed and looks like a powder-flask. One egg is 
glued to another, pointed end upward, until the raft is done. It takes 
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred eggs to make this won- 
