The Two-winged Flies 



39 



an incurable and hideously deforming kind of filariasis, from which quite 

 one-third of the natives of Samoa suffer, being disseminated chiefly (so 

 far as our present knowledge permits us to affirm) by mosquitoes of the 

 species Slegomyia jasciata. 



With a few English investigators and our own government and state 

 entomologists in the lead, a great campaign is being waged against mos- 

 quitoes. Despite the hosts of the enemy, its great capacity for providing 

 new individuals to supply the places of the fallen, its effective means of 

 locomotion, and its easily managed de- 

 partment of commissary, local foraging 

 being exclusively relied on for sustain- 

 ing its armies, we are making headway 

 against it. Our modes of attack are 

 various: by draining swamps, ponds, 



FIG. 416. FIG. 417. 



FIG. 416. A short -beaked mosquito, Corethra sp. (From life; four times natural size. 

 FIG. 417. Pupa (at left) and larva (at right) of short-beaked mosquito, Corethra sp. 

 (From life; six times natural size.) 



and puddles we restrict the multiplication of these pests, and rid particular 

 localities of them altogether; by introducing into ponds and pools which 

 cannot be drained substances, as kerosene, etc., which are poisonous to mos- 

 quitoes, we kill them in their adolescence; by encouraging and disseminating 

 their natural enemies, such as dragon-flies, we pursue them in their own 

 elements, water and air. Mosquitoes do not fly far; when abundant in a 

 locality, breeding-places are to be looked for close at hand. The open rain- 

 water barrel, a little puddle by the lawn hydrant, a cistern with unscreened 

 openings, all of these are welcome invitations to the mosquito to come and 

 rear a large family. Put close screen tops over water in cisterns and barrels; 



