The insect world : being a popular account of the orders of insects, together with a description of the habits and economy of some of the most interesting species / by Louis Figuier.

  • Figuier, Louis, 1819-1894.
Date:
[1872]
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    ought not to cause any pain. “ The point of the finest needle," says Réaumur, “ compared, to the sting of the gnat, is the same as the point of a sword compared to that of the needle.” How is it then that so small a wound does not heal at once ? How is it that small bumps arise on the part that is stung ? The fact is, that it is not only a wound, but it has been imbued with an irritating liquid. This liquid may be seen to exude, under different circumstances, from the trunk of the gnat, like a drop of very clear water. Réaumur sometimes saw this liquid even in the trunk itself. “ There is nothing better,” he observes, “ to prevent the bad effects of gnat bites than at once to dilute the liquid they hâve left in the wound with water. However small this wound may be, it will not be difficult for water to be introduced. By rubbing, it will be at o-nce enlarged, and there is nothing to do but to wash it. I hâve sometimes found this remedy answer very well.” The gnat is not always in the form of a winged insect, greedy for our blood. There is a period during which they leave us in repose. This is the larva period. It is in water, and in stagnant water in particular, that the larva of the insect which occupies our attention is to be found. It resembles a wornt, and may be found in ponds from the month of May until the commencement of winter. If we desire to follow the larva of the gnat from the beginning, we hâve only to keep a bucket of water in the open air. After a few days this water will be observed to be full of the larvæ of the gnat (Fig. 28). They are ver}'- small, and corne to the surface of the water to breathe : for which purpose they extend the opening of a pipe, a, which is attached to the last segment of the body, a little above the surface. They are, con- sequently, obliged to hold their heads down. By the side of the breathing-tube is another tube, b, shorter and thicker than the former, nearly per- ïo pendicular to the body, its orifice being the exterior Larva^fthe Gnat. termination of the digestive tube. At the anus it is fringed with long hairs, having the appearance, when in the water, of a funnel. At the end of the same tube, and inside the hair funnel, are four thin, oval, transparent, scaly blades, having the appearance of fins. They are placed in pairs, of which one emanates from the right side, the other from the left
    No text description is available for this image