REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 17 



"becomes darker toward the tip and occasionally it is banded. The 

 tarsi or feet are made up of five joints or segments and those on 

 the hind legs are longer than those on the anterior or middle legs. 

 Variations in the tarsi are easily seen and their markings and 

 bandings are good for easy recognition. Usually, when the tarsi 

 are banded, each joint has a white or whitish ring at the base 

 only ; rarely the joints are white at both base and tip, forming 

 a broad double band at each incision ; yet more rarely there may 

 he a white band at the middle of one or the other of the segments. 

 Occasionally one or more of the joints of the hind tarsi may be 

 entirely white. 



At the tip of each tarsus or foot is a pair of small claws which 

 .are interesting under the microscope. Some of these claws are 

 toothed and some are not and those on the different feet of one 

 ■species may differ. Furthermore, the male usually differs from 

 the female and has the anterior claw-joint quite different from 

 those of any similar joint in the other sex. These points will be 

 iound illustrated under specific headings and are not important 

 for rough determinations. 



The abdomen may be uniform in color or it may be banded. 

 If banded, the ring may be at the base or at the tip of the seg- 

 ment. The band may be broad or it may be narrow ; it may be 

 even or notched, or otherwise modified. In only one of our 

 species is there a stripe down the middle of the upper side. 



Given a mosquito captured in good condition so that all its 

 parts may be readily examined with a glass, the first point to 

 ascertain is whether the tarsi are even in color or ringed with 

 white. If they are white ringed, the beak must be next inspected 

 to determine whether that is uniform in color or has a white 

 space at or near the middle; assuming that it has not, the feet 

 must be again examined to find whether the joints are ringed at 

 base only or at base and tip, and whether any of the joints are 

 entirely white. The thorax must be examined for spots, lines or 

 stripes, and finally the character of the abdominal banding must 

 be determined. 



It sounds formidable enough and it may be a little slow at 

 first, but after a little practice all of these points are determined 

 at a single glance, and the insect may be placed at once with its 

 near neighbors, from which discrimination is usually easy. 



STRUCTURE OF THE EARVA. 



The mosquito larva, wiggler or wriggler, is a slender creature 

 usually whitish ot gray in color, the head and thoracic segments 

 enlarged, usually twice as broad as the following or abdominal 

 2 MO 



