6 INTRODUCTION 



characters are founded. Fabricius in 1805 first 

 designated the " tiger " mosquito; Stegomyia fasciata, 

 although Villiers had probably described the same 

 insect before ; Meigen called it Stegomyia calopus, 

 very soon after. In 1825 Latreille grouped mosquitos 

 generally under the name Culicidae, but only three 

 genera were known, Anopheles, Culex, and JEdes. 

 Subsequently, Robineau-Desvoidy and Arribalzaga 

 added several new genera, but the classifications were 

 very confused, several names being given by different 

 observers to the same species. Even the name mos- 

 quito itself has many synonyms ; it is derived from 

 the Spanish, and means a small fly. In England these 

 insects are variously called gnats or mosquitos, in 

 German, stechmiichen, in French, moustiques (mos- 

 quito net, moiistiquaire), in Italian, zanzari, in Span- 

 ish, mosquitos, in Hindustani, muckers (mosquito net, 

 mucher-jala), and in Arabic, nemoos (mosquito net, 

 nemoosieh). But in 1901 Mr. Theobald began the 

 publication of his well-known monograph, and this 

 has become the standard work on the classification 

 of the insect. As he himself explains, the reason for 

 the monograph was the discoveries of the important 

 part played by mosquitos in certain diseases. These 

 discoveries are now common knowledge, and need be 

 but shortly mentioned here. 



According to Nuttall, it was in 1878 that Bancroft 

 and Cobbold first suggested that the human blood- 

 worm, Filaria bancrofti, might be carried by mos- 

 quitos. This suggestion was based on the knowledge 

 obtaining then that certain Nematode and Cestode 



