46 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Culex pipiens is a frail and delicate creature to be possessed of such a vicious and 

 Ijlood- thirsty disposition. But here it must be stated that the sexes differ in this respect. 

 It is the female only that bites ; she alone is responsible for all the evil reputation which 

 has been attached to the species ; the male has not the power, even if he had the will, 

 whilst her will and power seem to be commensurate. 



The mouth parts of the female constitute a wondrously elaborate and complex ap- 

 paratus, which no verbal description can do justice to. What appears to the naked eye 

 to be a single sting, is composed of no less than seven distinct and separable parts. What 

 is taken for the sting is only the sheath in which the sting rests when not in use. Two 

 of the parts are barbed at the point for cutting the skin. All but the sheath enter two- 

 thirds their full length before they begin drawing the blood, the sheath doubling up under 

 the body of the insect. 



The manner in which the mosquito draws up the blood to satisfy its cravings, is 

 probably similar to that by which a butterfly secures the nectar from the flowers. Let us 

 consider the long proboscis as lips, the mouth proper being situated in the head at their 

 base ; when the lips have entered the fluid the muscles around the mouth a»'e contracted ; 

 that produces a cavity which is necessarily a vacuum, the fluid naturally rushes in to 

 flU it. When it is filled the muscles around the mouth relax, a valve at the base of the 

 lips closes and prevents its return, and the fluid is forced down the gullet. 



The rapidity with which the mosquito thus pumps up the blood, and the quantity it 

 secures in a given time, may easily be oVjserved by any one curious to know, by allowing 

 one of them to operate on the back of the hand, and watch the filling up of the abdomen. 

 I once clipped the end ofi the abdomen of one thus situated without disturbing its opera- 

 tion, and it pumped away until a pool of blood that had run through it formed on the 

 back of my hand and began to run off", when I stopped the performance. I had been 

 informed that this could be done Vjefore I succeeded in doing it. 



No poison gland has yet been found in the mosquito, but the irritation resulting, and 

 often continuing long after the bite is given, has led to the general conviction that poison 

 must be conveyed with it. One writer relates that a drop of clear fluid has been observed 

 at the end of the trunk, whilst Reamur says he saw fluid in the trunk itself. Some con- 

 tend that this fluid is used for diluting the blood so as to enable it to pass through the 

 extremely fine tube, but the quantity that they produce is so small, as compared 

 with the amount of blood they take, that it could have but little eflfect in that 

 way ; unless it was endowed with some powerful chemical property. Some have stated 

 that if they are allowed to take all they want, there will be no after irritation, the poison 

 being all removed with the blood taken. But personal experiments in this direction do not 

 confirm the statement. 



There is a great diversity in the effect of the mosquito bite on different persons, just 

 as there is in the sting of a bee ; not from any diff"erence in the sting and bite, but from 

 something in the constitution of the individual. The Rev. J. G. Wood tells us of the eff"ect 

 of a single gnat bite on himself, given at the junction of the thumb with the wrist. (It is culex 

 pipiens he is speaking of). He says : " Th& hand swelled up until it looked like a box- 

 ing glove, was purple in color where it was not crimson, and it was more than three weeks 

 after the bite was inflicted before I fully recovered the use of my hand." This may be 

 considered a serious case, and if he had received several bites at the same time, some of 

 them about the face, we shall say, there is no saying how much more serious it might have 

 been. I copy the following from a communication by H. Stewart, of North Oarolina, 

 dated Nov. 3, 1891, given in Insect Life, Vol. 4, p. 277, as illustrative of this point : 



" I was interested in reading a recent number of Lisect Life to the effect that the 

 poison of the mosquito was provocative of insanity. When I was engaged in exploring in 

 the vicinity of the north shore ot Lake Superior about twenty-five years ago, I had more 

 than one proof of this fact. One of my men was badly bitten, and seemed to suffer more 

 than any others of the company. He became violently insane and ran off" in the 

 woods, and in spite of efforts he eluded pursuit and was never found again. Another 

 man on a diff"erent occasion was aff'ected in a similar manner, and was captured with diffi- 

 culty, after a long chase, in which he exhibited the utmost terror, but after a few days' 

 close confinement in the camp he regained his reason. Afterwards he was so seriously 



