CHAPTER VI 



THE MOSQUITO {Anophdes macitiipennis) 



Part III 



The tiny-trumpeting gnat can break our dream 

 When sweetest. (Tennyson.J 



It is now pretty well accepted that the audi- 

 tory organs of the mosquito are situated in the 

 antennae. Sixty years ago Johnston of Balti- 

 more was investigating the hearing- apparatus of 

 a gnat, and came to the conclusion that — 



The animal may judge of the intensity or distance 

 of the source of sound by the quantity of the im- 

 pression ; of the pitch, or quality, by the conso- 

 nance of particular whorls of stiff hairs, according 

 to their lengths ; and of the direction in which the 

 modulations travel, by the manner in which they 

 strike upon the antennae, or may be made to meet 

 either antenna, in consequence of an opposite move- 

 ment of that part. That the male should be en- 

 dowed with superior acuteness of the sense of hearing 

 appears from the fact that he must seek the female 

 for sexual union either in the dim twilight or in the 

 dark night, when nothing save her sharp humming 

 noise can serve him as a guide. 



65 F 



