120 OBSERVATIONS OS THE LIFE HISTORY, ETC. 



you will find him standing on the empty skin, using it as a 

 float, until his wings are dry and unfolded and capable of flight. 

 Often, at this critical moment, a puff of wind may co ne and 

 upset him, and, in his helpless, entangled state, he drowns. 



I have a view in fig. O that shows the process almost 

 completed. I say almost, for this one had the misfortune for 

 himself to get the end of his long legs entangled in the upper 

 part of the pupa case ; you see them as two rings through the 

 clear cast-ofi' case. It was a bad job for him, but a proof of the 

 old saying that " it's an ill -wind that blows noboly any good." 

 It was the means of adding him to my collection, and of 

 demonstrating to you this interesting change in insect life. 



The succeeding picture, not reproduced here, shows one 

 of the completed forms a little larger than life, but quite 

 as natural. This lady had the audacity to pay me — 

 a batchelor — a midnight visit. Managing to creep through 

 a hole in the curtains, she succeeded in her desire to 

 have a private interview. She may have been of an 

 ambitious nature, desiring fame. At all event , she got one 

 thing she wanted — a good draught of my blood. You see how 

 fat and buxom she has grown in consequence. I am sure she 

 had to let out her waistband a good bit before her meal was 

 finished. However, she got more than she expected. She was 

 captured, imprisoned, and then, as is the custom with notorious 

 criminals, she was photographed, and there is her portrait for 

 your inspection. The wings lie folded along the back. There 

 are only two in the mosquito, as it belongs to the Diptera or 

 class of insects possessing two wings, but behind, and hidden by 

 them, are two little club-like organs called /yf^/^c/v.s, or balancers. 

 They are jointed at the base, and special luuscles raise and 

 lower them. They are plentifully supplied with nerves, and 

 believed, by some scientists, to be organs of hearing. If one is 

 cut oft", the insect is unable to fly straight. So that they are 

 called balancers, in that they aid them to fly steadily, just as the 

 pole helps a tight-rope dancer to maintain his balance. The 

 insect has six legs of extraordinary length and so elastic that 

 you often cannot feel them touching your skin. Each leg 

 terminates in two hooks like grappling irons. By this means 

 they can cling to anything they please ; climb up a perpendicular 

 wall, or hold on to a ceiling. 



