MOSQtllTOES {CTJLICIBJhf). 85 



Spirit Specimens. 



Specimens may also ,be sent in spirit. Each species should be 

 sent in a separate tube, and the tube numbered to correspond with 

 the number of a dried specimen of the same species. They are best 

 preserved in 70 per cent, alcohol. 



Specimens should be Pinned Immediately they are Dead. 



Mosquitoes are best pinned as soon as possible after death. 

 Specimens should be pinned in three positions — (1) to show the 

 dorsal view, (2) the ventral and (3) the lateral aspects. When 

 travellinfi^ in haste, specimens may be kept in pill-boxes. They 

 must be kept from rollinor about by tissue- or cigarette-paper. One 

 or more sp»ecimens, according to the size of the box, may be put at 

 the bottom, and then a piece of tissue paper laid on them, with just 

 sufficient pressiu-e to prevent them from moving, care being taken 

 not to crush the specimens. Tf there is space vacant at the top of 

 the box, it should be filled with cotton-wool (medicated preferred), 

 but it is never advisable to let the wool come in contact with 

 the specimens. 



Number of Specimens of Each Species Required. 



In collecting specimens of a species of mosquito some half-dozen 

 examples of each sex should, if possible, always be obtained and 

 pinned or preserved dry, and the same number in spirit. 



How to Distinguish the Sexes. 



The male mosquitoes can usually be distinguished from the females 

 (which, in the majority of species, alone bite and suck blood) by the 

 possession of plumose antennse, forming tufts in front of the head (in 

 certain genera, such as Deinocerites and Sahethes, the male antennse 

 a,re not plumose ; the genitalia must then be examined) ; in the 

 females the antennae, though long, are neai-ly bare (having whorls of 

 only short hair at the bases of the joints), while the palpi in the 

 case of females are quite short, except in the genera Ano})heJes 

 and Cycloleppteron^ in which the palpi are as long as the proboscis 

 in both sexes, but are more swollen at the tips in the males. 



