MOSQUITOES 



129 



and certain musical sounds seem to possess a charm. The song 

 of the mosquito varies with the species and with the sex ; it is 

 believed these insects find their mates by the pitch of their song. 

 Mosquitoes are not without their natural enemies. Birds 

 (especially nighthawks, swallows, and whippoorwills flying at 

 dusk), also bats and dragon flies, feed upon adult mosquitoes. 

 One observer reports having found six hundred mosquitoes 





* ' si * 



' ^xrw-. 



FIG. 66. Collecting mosquitoes 

 Equipment: insect nets and smaller scrim nets for use in water 



in the crop of a nighthawk. A minute red mite may often 

 be found clinging to mosquitoes, and it is said to greatly 

 reduce their numbers in some localities. 



Young mosquitoes are aquatic. Mosquitoes lay their eggs on 

 the surface of water, usually about three days after they have 

 taken a meal of blood. The eggs are laid in the early morning 

 hours and hatch into larvae about two o'clock the same day. 

 Culex lays from two hundred to four hundred cigar-shaped 

 eggs which float on end in boat-shaped masses. -The larvae, 

 letter known as wrigglers, swim actively about in the water, 



