46 



MORE MINOR HORRORS 



ever, too weak to pierce the human integu- 

 ment, and it is the female which does all the 

 damage. When a mosquito is going to bite, 



she alights so gently that 

 her approach is unper- 

 ceived, and she proceeds 

 to thrust her arsenal of 

 weapons into the epi- 

 dermis of her victim al- 

 most unfelt; the feeling 

 comes la ter. These 

 weapons are all guided, 

 by the forked end of the 

 softened labium, just as 

 one's finger-tips guide 

 Fig. 15.— a side view of the the cud of a billiard-cuc. 



labeUae and piercing-organs of rj.^ c ^^^^^^ p^rts ' are 



the proboscis of a female , ^ 



Anopheles maculipennis, dis- exceedingly fine, CX- 



tremely sharp-edged 



mx 



mn 



sected out to show the tips of 

 the mandibles, maxillae, and 



labrum + epipharynx. The strUCturCS, whoSC COU- 

 hypopharynx is not shown, li, • • • v • • i ■ x- 



sistency is about that ot 



Labium ; Ixe, labrum + epi- 

 pharjTix ; mx, jfirst maxilla ; 

 mn, mandible; la, labellae. 

 (From Nuttall and Shipley.) 



whalebone, and both the 

 mandibles and the max- 

 illae have a toothed, 

 serrated edge (Fig. 15). They are partly 

 pushed in by muscles in the head, partly, I 

 think, by the lowering of the body, and they 

 sink slowly and surely into the flesh with as 

 much ease as a paper-knife will penetrate a 

 cream-cheese. But as they sink deeper and 



