(B) 

 ENTOMOLOGICAL ADDRESSES. 



THE MOSQUITO. 



[Read before the Dana Natural History Society of Albany, May 14, 18S7.] 

 Strange as it may seem, the common objects in nature surrounding us 

 on every side and ever at hand, are those of which we frequently know 

 the least. Day after day throughout our Hves many, if not most of us, 

 pass along the streets without knowing the nature of the stones we tread 

 upon, the names of the trees that throw their grateful shadows over our 

 pathway, or of the birds or insects that fly around us. If the cultivated 

 mind may find " sermons m stones, books in the running brooks," surely 

 volumes of intense and absorbing interest are to be found in the inter- 

 pretation of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, in their infinitely varied 

 forms, their complicated structure, their wonderful transformations and 

 peculiar habits: and how much do we lose from our inattention to 

 these common objects — the almost constant presence of which before 

 our eyes is a perpetual invitation to their observation and study, and a 

 rebuke for their neglect. 



I have chosen for my topic of this afternoon paper, one of these 

 common objects — a very common insect, with which, perhaps, you may 

 think yourselves sufficiently familiar, while, in reality, knowing next to 

 nothing of it. And if I shall succeed in showing you that the mosquito, 

 perhaps the most universally obnoxious of our insect pests, possesses many 

 attractive features and has its beneficent uses in nature, you may feel 

 inclined to extend to it henceforth some degree of toleration, and even 

 to honor it with a little attention. Yet I shall not expect that even the 

 enthusiastic members of the Dana Natural History Society will be wrought 

 up to such a state of ecstasy in its contemplation that they will adopt 

 the sentiment of a distinguished naturahst of the past century — " it is 

 impossible to behold and not admire the amazing structure of the 

 mosquito's sting : one undergoes with pleasure a puncture that enables 

 us to observe how this wondrous piece of mechanism works." 



The Common Name. 

 Mosquito is a Spanish and Portuguese word, and is probably the 

 diminutive of the Spanish mosca fly. Its orthography varies, it being 

 given by Webster as m-o-s-q-u-i-t-o, m-u-s-q-u-i-t-o, m-u-s-k-e-t-o. For 



