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Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



while in the Culex mosquitoes the wings are clear, and the palpi are 

 very short (compare, a, Fig. 26 and c, Fig. 27). Also when Culex is 

 at rest upon a wall it appears more or less humpbacked, as shown in 

 Fig. 28, the body and wings being parallel with the wall. With Ano- 

 pheles, however, the body is at a very great angle with the surface, as 

 shown in the figure. 



Mosquitoes must have water in which to breed. The imprint left 

 by a cow's hoof and filled by a passing shower may, in a week's time, 



furnish a breeding- 

 place for hundreds of 

 " wigglers " or larval 

 mosquitoes {e in Figs. 

 26 and 27). The 

 rain-water barrel or 

 tub, which is too often 

 a perennial fixture 

 around country homes, 

 is one of the most pro- 

 lific breeding-sources 

 for mosquitoes. They 

 also breed in almost 

 any place where water 

 stands for a fortnight, 

 and often swarm in 

 puddles, small ponds, 

 in old tin cans, and in 

 quiet pools along the 

 borders of streams or 

 about springs. Mos- 

 quitoes delight in dark 

 and damp situations 

 where the air does not 

 freely circulate, as in 

 tall grass underneath trees, but they do not breed in such situations and 

 must have come from some near-by water. Only the female mosquito 

 " sings" and "bites," and but few of these ever taste human blood, 

 their normal food being the juices of plants. It is an interesting and 

 instructive operation to watch a mosquito " bite" (Fig. 26, a), but first 

 be sure it is not an Anopheles. The males are readily recognized by their 

 feathered antennae (compare b and c, Fig. 26). 



Fig 



Culex mosquito — (a) and 

 {c} males; {b) jcmale; {d) eggs; (e) young "wigglers" ; 

 (i) full-grown larva or "wiggler" ; (g) larva in feed- 

 ing position at surface; (h) pupa; all enlarged. — 

 (Adapted from Howard). 



