A CURIOUS INSECT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6120, 5 March 1898, Page 2

A CURIOUS INSECT.

Ifc is in August that the naturalists observe the marvellous insect whioh is born, reproduces, and dies in the period of a single night, on the banks of the Marne, of the Seine, and of the llhine. It. is the ephemere of which Sirainmerdam has written and which is spoken of in Aristofclo. The life of this insect does not last beyond four or five hours. It dies towards eleven o'clock in the evening, after taking the form of a butterfly about six hours after mid-day. It is true, however, that before taking this form it has lived three years in that of a worm, which keeps always near the border of water in the holes which it makes in the mud. The change of this wt>rm in the water to an ephemere which flies is so sudden that one has not the time to see it. If one takes the worm in the water, the hand cannot be taken away before the change is made unless by pressing the worm slightly in the region of the chest. By this means ifc can be taken from the water before the change takes place. The ephemere, after leaving the water, seeks a place where it can divest itself of a fine membrane or .veil, which entirely covers it. This second change takes place in the air. The ephemere then assists., itself with the point of its little nails. It makes a movement similar to that of ashiver, then the skin on the middle of the back breaks apart, the wings slip out of their sheath, as . we sometimes take off our gloves by turning them inside out. After this stripping the ephemere begins to fly. Sometimes it holds itself straight up on the surface of the water on the end of its tail, flapping its wings one against the other. It takes no nourishment in the five or six hours which are the limit of its life. It seems to have been formed but to multiply, for it does not ieave its state of a -worm until it is ready to deposit its eggs, and it dies as soon as they are deposited. In three days' tim9 one sees appear and die all species of ephenieres. They last sometimes until the fifth day, for the reason that some malady has affected some of them and prevents them from changing at the same time as the others.