96 MORE MINOR HORRORS 



between five and ten minutes. When un- 

 disturbed the en\prgent fly rests for a time 

 until its wings and Hmbs are sufficiently 

 hardened to enable it to fly, or at least to 

 walk about. Sometimes the mosquito takes 

 its first flight straight from the pupa - case ; 

 at other times it rests awhile before taking 

 to the air. The young imago is pale in colour, 

 the thorax being brown and the abdomen 

 transparent, with a greenish tinge. At first 

 the abdomen is much longer than it is later, for, 

 almost immediately after the mosquito's exit 

 from the pupa-case its abdomen begins to 

 contract, and from its hinder end four or five 

 drops of a glistening, greenish-white fluid are 

 exuded. 



The newly born imagines generally take to 

 flight between five and ten minutes after 

 they have emerged, and they at once begin 

 to darken in colour, and in two hours assume 

 the normal dusky colour of the adult. If 

 anything hinders the insect from properly 

 extending its limbs immediately on issuing 

 from the pupa-case, the parts harden and 

 remain distorted throughout life. 



Anyone who has spent a day or two in 

 Lille or Bruges, or other towns in Picardy 

 and in Southern Belgium, will understand 

 why, as my Uncle Toby has it, ' Our army 



