INTRODUCTION 



A WORD of explanation in regard to the compo- 

 sing of this book is necessary. In January, 

 1904, Dr. J. W. Dupree, Surgeon-General of Louisi- 

 ana, and Professor H. A. Morgan, at that time Pro- 

 fessor of Zoology in the Louisiana State University } 

 now State Entomologist of Tennessee, asked Profes- 

 sor J. H. Comstock, of Cornell University, to send 

 them an artist entomologist. Thus I chanced to have 

 the great good fortune of acting as artist and assistant 

 to Dr. Dupree for the space of six months, and to 

 him owe the initial impulse to the study of mosqui- 

 toes. It did not take me many hours to see that Dr. 

 Dupree had attacked the problem of life histories of 

 mosquitoes as no one else had done, and in the most 

 logical and scientific way — not by merely collecting 

 larvae, but by obtaining living adults, inducing them 

 to oviposit, and raising the larvae. He knew more 

 about mosquito eggs and the peculiar habits of the 

 larvae than any one else I ever met or heard of, he 

 could tell many of the larvae by their general appear- 

 ance and actions without the aid of a magnify- 

 ing glass, and I never saw any one else who knew 

 so many without bringing to his aid a compound 

 microscope. 



When in Baton Rouge I felt the need of a field key 

 for the adults, — one based on colour which would 



