PIPTERA. 317 



Marangouins and Moustiques, or Musquetoes, the inhabitants, as in 

 other countries, defend themselves from them by surrounding their 

 beds Avith gauze, or a Mosquetoebar. The Laj)landers remove 

 them by fire, and rubbing the exposed parts of their body with grease. 

 These insects also feed on the nectar of flowers. 



The female deposits her eggs on the surface of the water, and 

 crossing her posterior legs near the anus, and slowly separating 

 them as the ova are extruded, places them side by side, in a per- 

 pendicular direction ; the entire mass resembles a little bateau floating 

 on that element. Each female lays about three hundred eggs in the 

 course of the year. These Insects frequently survive the most in- 

 tense cold. Their larvae swarm in the green and stagnant waters of 

 ponds and ditches, particulary in spring, the period at which those 

 females lay their eggs who have passed through the winter. They 

 suspend themselves on the surface of the water, in order to respire, 

 with their heads downwards. They have a distinct rounded head, 

 furnished with two (species of) antennae and ciliated organs, by the 

 motion of which they draw alimentary matters v/ithin their reach; 

 a thorax with tufts of hair; an almost cylindrical and elongated 

 abdomen, much narrower than the anterior part of the body, divided 

 into ten rings, of which the antepenultimate bears (above) the respi- 

 ratory organ, and the last is terminated by radiating setae and ap- 

 pendages. These larvre are very lively, swim with considerable 

 velocity, and dive from time to time, but soon return to the surface. 

 After some changes of tegument, they then become nymphs, which 

 still continue to move by means of their tail and its two terminal 

 fins. These nymiihs also remain on tlie surface of the water, but in 

 a different position from that of the larv^e, their respiratory organs 

 being placed on the thorax ; tliey consist of two tubular horns. It 

 is in the water also that the perfect Insect is developed. Its exuviae, 

 form a sort of board or resting place, which keeps it from submer- 

 sion. All these metamorphoses occur in the space of three or four 

 weeks, and several generations are produced in the course of the 

 year. 



In the excellent work of M. Meigen on the Diptera of Europe, the 

 genus Culcx of the preceding authors is divided into three. The 

 species, in which the palpi of the males are longer than the proboscis 

 and those of the females are very short, form that of 



Cvh-EX proper. 

 C.pipiens, L.', De Geer, Insect., VI, xvii. Cinereous; abdo- 

 men annulated with brown ; wings immaculate *. 

 Those in which the palpi of the males are as long as the proboscis 

 form another subgenus. 



Anopheles t- 

 Those in which they arc very short in both sexes compose an- 

 other, the 



^DES, Hof. X 



* For the other species, see Meigen, Dipt., I, 1 : Macq., Dipt, du nord de la Fr„ 

 Tipulaires, p. 153. 



t Ibid., I. 10; Macq., Ibid., 162. 

 : Il>id., I. l;^. 



