8 4 



ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



regions, and is nearly always found in or about houses. It is sometimes 



called the "day mosquito" from its habit of biting in the daytime. 



This mosquito, Fig. 64, is black with conspicuous white markings; 



the legs and abdomen are banded with white, while the thorax is marked 



with white in the form of a lyre. 



Anopheles, the other important disease carrier may be distinguished 



from the non-malarial forms as follows: it has spotted wings, while most 



of the other forms have clear wings; 

 it has long mouth palpi, shown ven- 

 tral to the proboscis in Fig. 65; and 

 when at rest the head and proboscis 

 are in one line with the body and 

 form a considerable angle with the 

 surface, instead of being nearly 

 parallel to it, Fig. 65; the position 

 of the breathing larva, close to the 

 surface of the water, is shown in 

 the upper half of Fig. 66. 



TAs is well known it is the female 

 mosquito that bites, possibly the 

 male, in most cases, takes no food. 

 The males may often be recognized 

 by their large, feathery antennae, 

 which have given them the name of 

 " woolly heads." It is commonly 

 supposed that they live upon blood, 

 but it is likely that not one in a 

 million ever tastes blood; their natu- 

 ral food is generally the juices of 

 soft plants, which accounts for the oenencial results of cutting down 

 rank vegetation in the neighborhood of mosquito-infested houses. 

 They may be kept in captivity by feeding them on ripe bananas. 



While there is some variation in the life-histories of the different 

 species, the general process is about as follows: the female lays a number 

 of eggs, either singly or in masses that float on the surface of the water; 

 there may be several hundred eggs in one of these masses or "rafts," 

 Fig. 67. The water may be fresh or salt, clean or foul; even cess-pools 

 or wet mud may serve for some species. The water may be a lake, 



FIG. 63. King or horse-shoe crab, 

 Limulus Polyphemus. X%. 



