MOSQUITOES IN GENERAL 37 



In spite of what we have just said about the non-pene- 

 trating- mouth parts of male mosquitoes, Dr. C. W. Stiles 

 informs me that he and Hurst (the author of an im- 

 portant paper on the pupal stage of Culex, Manchester, 

 1890) made an observation in the summer of 1889, at Leip- 

 sic, which convinced him that either the males do oc- 

 casionally bite or that occasionally females possess 

 feathered antennae. Stiles and Hurst were out in a row- 

 boat one evening and were bitten a number of times by 

 Culex nemorcdls. One individual which bit Stiles on the 

 left hand was crushed, and in the crushing act a consider- 

 able 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 an- 

 tennae. Hurst also examined it, and remarked that it was 

 the first instance he had known where a male Culex liad 

 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 i3ublislied. Dr. 

 Stiles is so well known as an accurate observer, that some 

 other explanation than faulty observation must be offered 

 in this instance. 



This observation, although apparently without pre- 

 cedent, leads to a decision coinciding- with that of Jor- 

 dens (1801), who thought that tlie male mosquito could 

 l)ite, and wrote, according to Dimmock, " But since the 

 male is also provided with a sucking seta it is not com- 

 prehensil)le Avhy it should not use it for the same pur- 

 pose." Dr. Dimmock, in his admirable dissertation upon 

 " The anatomy of the mouth-parts and of the sucking ap- 



