lis OBSERVATIONS ON THE LIFE HISTORY, ETC. 



upper part of the body. His shape suggests the stop used in 

 punctuating words, called the comma. Head and shoulders are 

 fused together in one mass, and he has no neck. In his former 

 state the round head was moveable in any direction. Now that 

 has disappeared, and the head is stiffly attached to the body, so 

 that it can only be moved up and down, enabling him to give a 

 solemn nod, like Lord Burleigh. Two lovely black eyes gleam 

 out from the sides of his head, and above them rise two trumpet- 

 shaped horns tlionicir sjiinirlcs. Their use is seen when we 

 remember that, though still living in the water, he is an 

 air-breathing insect. Formerly he breathed through his tail ; 

 that aperture is now gone. Having no mouth, his only means 

 of comnmnication with the air is through these curious horns on 

 the sides of his head. He bobs up and down in the water in a 

 very amusing way, and every few minutes, rising to the surface 

 he thrusts up these horns, and the air drawn through them is 

 distributed by tubes through his body. The segments of his 

 frame are united after the pattern of a lobster. A series of fiat 

 rings being hinged to each other by a flexible membrane, so that 

 the tail can be bent so as to come beneath the head. During 

 this stage he eats nothing. All that work is done before while 

 he is in the larval state. Probably some of our boarding-house 

 keepers would not object to their lodgers following the example 

 of the pupa. The mosquito larva manifests a very healthy 

 appetite. He grows fat and plump, but after stripping off his 

 combination garment, and rising up into a pupa he eats no more 

 food. But though he does not eat, yet he is very active. Most 

 insects, while in the pupa stage, lie perfectly still, but he is an 

 exception. Always swimming, dodging, and diving, and varying 

 these occupations by resting on the surface of the water, and 

 sucking air though these trumpet tubes on his head. 



During this time, lasting 2 or 3 days, his cream-coloured 

 garments grow into a darken hue, and inside a wonderful 

 transformation is going on. The mosquito is being built up by 

 unseen hands in that tiny workshop, legs, wings, antenme, 

 proboscis, and body, gradually appear, all packed neatly together 

 on the case, as if by fairy hands. In that pupa frame (fig. 4) was 

 a perpectly-formed mosquito. Through the cover can be traced 

 different portions of the body. The notch on the top of the 

 head is where the neck of the insect lies ; it marks the division 

 of the head and shoulders. The dark tapering line below is 



