. The world of animal life. Zoology. 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;
. The world of animal life. Zoology. 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. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Smith, Fred, pseud. , ed. London, Glasgow [etc. ] Blackie and son, Ltd.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1910
