Mos.qmto€ii In General 



The Life Roiiiul of Mosquitoes. 



ALL mosquitoes, so far as kuowu, are aquatic in 

 their early stag-es. It has never been shown that 

 any of them hiy their eg-gs anywhere except in 

 Avater. Their Lirvje live under the surface of the water, 

 although they are true air-breathers ; that is to say, they 

 must come to the surface of the water to breathe. This 

 breathing is performed through branched tracheal tubes 

 within the body, which terminate in an orifice at the end 

 of a prolongation of one of the last seg-ments of the ab- 

 domen, and which from this fact is known as the respira- 

 tor}' tube. This tulie is pushed at intervals up through 

 the surface film of the water and air is drawn down into 

 the tracheae. Tlie larvse feed either at the surface or 

 l>elow the surface, and their food is composed of all sorts 

 of floating particles, and in the case of some of the larger 

 forms they may even bite aquatic vegetation. They are 

 rapid breeders and pass the pupal condition also in the 

 water, but floating normally at the surface. In the pupae 

 they breathe not from a breathing tube at the anal end of 

 the abdomen, but from two trumpet-shaped tubes issuing- 



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