124 NOTES ON A BRUSH-TONGUED MOSQUITO 



they can be recognised by anyone who has studied thire 

 peculiarities. In the Toxorynchites speciosa the head is 

 small, rectangular in shape, Avith a short unjointed palp 

 projecting from either cheek. The thorax is about twice 

 the length and breadth of the head. Three sets of short 

 feathered balancing hairs spring from stout conical papilla 

 on the sides. These bend towards the head. On the 

 ,abdominal segments are similar papilla bearing much 

 longer tufts of bristles. The terminal segment in the new 

 born larva is longer and carries four very long seta, which 

 .^re replaced in the next moult by a different form of appen- 

 dage. In three or four days the colour becomes yellow. 

 I found to my sorrow they were cannabilistic in practice. 



I placed in clean water so that there should be no 

 insects to do them hurt. But they preyed on one another, 

 and it became a question of the survival of the fittest. 

 On returning from business at night, I found only two alive, 

 one seriously injured. He had received a bite through 

 the chest which severed one of the main tracheal tubes, 

 ^nd notwithstanding careful nursing he died in three days. 



The survivor was much more robust, and as the effect 

 of his orgies, greAv so as to require a new suit of clothes, 

 for he moulted on the fourth day. This did not make 

 any alteration in his appearance excepting in the tail 

 appendages. In some species the difference is much 

 marked, so that before and after the moult they look like 

 two different species. Here the only change was in size 

 and the tail fan. On the fifth day, granules of dark pig- 

 ment began to appear, turning the general colour reddish 

 brown, though the abdomen remained much paler. I 

 regularly fed it on the larva of other mosquitoes, which 

 it seized in characteristic style. First it displayed an 

 -aspect of perfect indifference to their presence. Not a 

 muscle moved nor a balancing hair turned. It might 

 be a floating splinter of w^ood for any sign of life. The 

 other larva might sAvim round and almost touch it, but 

 there Avas no sign of anxiety to cultivate a closer acquaint- 

 ance. Thus all fear they might at first have at its 

 presence subsided. By-and-bye, however, it would sidle 

 up Avith a slow motion, Avatching intently Adth the head 

 sloping do Avn wards, the tail being attached to the surface 

 j&lm. Remaining motionless, it measured the striking 



