FOOD OF MALES 109 



an observation in the northwest United States in which he saw a mosquito en- 

 gaged in feeding on the chrysalis of a butterfly. Theobald has on two occasions 

 seen Culex nigritulus sucking at the body of Chironomus and other small 

 Diptera. 



Male mosquitoes do not suck blood. In the chapter on the anatomy of the 

 mouth-parts we have shown that some of the mouth organs are absent or greatly 

 reduced in the male and on this account it is unable to pierce the skin. There 

 are, however, records by good observers of male mosquitoes sucking blood. One 

 of these is quoted herewith from Howard's " Mosquitoes " : 



" In spite of what we have just said about the non-penetrating mouth parts of 

 male mosquitoes, Dr. C. W. Stiles informs me that he and Hurst (the author of 

 an important paper on the pupal stage of Culex, Manchester, 1890) made an 

 observation in the summer of 1889, at Leipsic, which convinced him that either 

 the males do occasionally bite or that occasionally females possess feathered an- 

 tennas. Stiles and Hurst were out in a row-boat one evening and were bitten a 

 number of times by Culex nemoralis. One individual which bit Stiles on the left 

 hand was crushed, and in the crushing act a considerable quantity of blood 

 exuded — enough to make a fair-sized blood-stain on his skin. Upon examining 

 the dead body he was surprised to note that it possessed male antennjE. Hurst 

 also examined it, and remarked that it was the first instance he had known where 

 a male Culex had actually been caught sucking blood. Dr. Stiles tells me that 

 Hurst intended to place the observation on record, but that he does not think it 

 was ever published. Dr. Stiles is so well known as an accurate observer, that 

 some other explanation than faulty observation must be offered in this instance." 



Ficalbi makes the following statement regarding Aedes calopus: "A most 

 remarkable peculiarity of this species is that the male stings as well as the female 

 and sucks blood, producing a puncture equally painful with that produced by 

 the female." The statement has been widely quoted but we have been unable to 

 find independent observations in confirmation of Ficalbi's statement. In our 

 own wide experience with this species we have never known the male to bite nor, 

 of the numerous specimens handled by us, has there been any male with traces of 

 a blood-meal. W. Wesche, on account of the reports of the male biting, has ex- 

 amined the mouth-parts of several male Aedes calopus. He states that he 

 " found very short atrophying maxillaj, no mandibles, a ciliated hypopharynx, 

 and the labrum and labium well develoi>ed," a condition which does not support 

 the idea that the male bites. 



There is still the possibility that the observations just quoted, of males suck- 

 ing blood, are based upon abnormal indviduals. Wesche found that aberrant 

 males occur in which the mouth-parts are fully developed. But one would still 

 have to assume that, along with the complete mouth-parts, such males had in- 

 herent the appetite for blood otherwise peculiar to the female. 



It seems certain that the females of many species and of certain genera are 

 unable to pierce the skin of human beings and do not suck blood. The large and 

 brilliant mosquitoes of the genus Megarhinus do not suck blood. The pro- 

 boscis is so modified, the labium being entirely rigid, that they can not pierce 

 with it; recent observations show that both sexes are habitual flower-feeders. 

 Eecently Mr. Edward Jacobson has discovered a mosquito, Ilarpagomyia 



