58 Mosquitoes 



which is accomplished by means of the long, sensitive 

 hairs of his antennae. Any disturbance that will 

 cause the female to leave her resting place on the 

 side of the cage in which she is confined will result 

 in her immediate seizure by the male, and the two 

 fly off in copula. Nor is the process arrested at once 

 should they be precipitated into water, which occa- 

 sionally occurs from sudden and unexpected contact 

 with the walls of the cage, but the act is carried to 

 a finish. The performance will be repeated every 

 hour or two if encouraged by a tap on the cage. In 

 one instance it was repeated many times daily for 

 more than a month — a refutation of the statement, 

 so often made, that the male dies soon after the sex- 

 ual act is completed. Nor, in several other species 

 as well as in this, is it true that the female dies as 

 soon as her eggs are deposited, for the insect some- 

 times lives two or three days after laying the last 

 batch, the ovaries being found empty after death. 

 This is one of the evidences of the unwisdom of 

 premature generalisation. 



These creatures most thoroughly illustrate the 

 rule, so general with insects as to have almost the 

 force of a law, that the first and main business of 

 life is the perpetuation of the species. On one occa- 

 sion the Doctor employed successfully the inordi- 

 nate erotism as a means of differentiation of the 

 species. Four females of relatively large size, reared 

 from pupae of excessive dimensions and peculiar 

 appearance, obtained from most foul water, all of 

 which rendered their identity questionable, were 

 placed in a cage with a male Stegomyia calopus, of 



