LIFE HISTORIES OF CULEX. 33 



secondary consideration, a means to an end — the pnrsuit 

 of snstenance needed until the reproductive period is 

 passed and her brief span is finished. 



The irritating effect of the mosquito bite has long been 

 a source of much conflicting testimony. Especially in 

 the popular prints has the '^ sting of a gnat " figured as a 

 formidable weapon, and at times has it assumed the pro- 

 portions of a veritable hypodermic syringe, loaded with 

 the most virulent poison. From Westwood's Classifica- 

 tion we extract the following : '' It is supposed that at 

 the same time it instills into the wound a venomous 

 liquid, which, while it enables the blood to flow faster, is 

 the chief cause of the trouble." Packard,^^'* after quoting 

 the above, says : " So far as we are aware, no poison 

 glands have been demonstrated to exist in the head of 

 flies or other six footed insects, and we are disposed to 

 doubt whether any poison is poured into the wound, and 

 to question whether the barbed mandibles are not sufficient 

 to produce the irritation ordinarily accompanying the 

 jjunctured wound." Two biologists of our own country 

 have contributed nuich of our present knoMdedge of the 

 sucking apparatus in Culex. Dr. George Dimmock,^* 

 of Cambridge, and Prof Macloskie, of Princeton,^^^ have 

 each given the entomological world the benefit of patient 

 research and study in this department of Dipterology. 

 To the latter belongs the credit of discovering the exist- 

 ence and probable nature of certain glands in the antero 

 inferior region of the prothorax of Culex, which evidently 

 empty through a duct Mhich, In turn, empties into the 

 reservoir at the base of the hypopharynx. Says Prof. 

 Macloskie : "The secret was first discovered by an obser- 

 vation of fine droplets of a yellow, oily looking fluid 



