4 Mosquitoes 



Sing. As for the sizes, they run from the tiny chaps 

 an eighth of an inch long, up to the giants of the 

 tribe which can proudly boast of half an inch. 



The body of the adult consists of head, thorax, 

 and abdomen. The head in great part is made up 

 of the immense oval or reniform compound eyes. 

 The beak in the female and the antennae in the male 

 are the most conspicuous structures of the head. 

 The construction of the beak is adapted to piercing 

 or sucking (Fig. I, page 3). It consists of seven 

 parts; 1 the galea, two palpifers, two laciniae, a hypo- 

 pharynx, and a labium. The mandibles and labrum 

 are absent in both sexes (Smith). The galea (Fig. 1) 

 forms a sheath for the puncturing and sucking 

 structures which lie within it. When these are 

 separated they are seen to be five, more or less 

 flattened, rods, and an upper, grooved organ. 



The lacinise in the female are strong lancets, fitted 

 for cutting, and bear recurved teeth on the outer 

 side near the enlarged apex. The palpifers are flat- 

 tened and may or may not bear teeth. The male 

 has no lacinioe (Thompson). It would be interesting 

 to note the construction of the mouth-parts of those 

 species where the males are said to bite. The laciniae 



1 The names of these organs are as determined by Dr. J. B. 

 Smith after a thorough study and comparison of dissections and cross 

 sections of the mouth-parts of a large number of different kinds of 

 insects belonging to all of the orders. Since he places a different 

 interpretation upon the various organs than what had been done pre- 

 viously, it may be well to give the equivalents of the two systems. 

 Thus, the galea of Smith is the labium of previous authors ; the 

 palpifers equal the maxillae; lacinice, the mandibles; and labium, 

 the labrum-epipharynx. The hypopharynx is the same in both 

 systems. 



