UNIVERSITY 



OF 



BRITISH BLOODSUCKERS 249 



five long lancets, guarded by an upper lip, which 

 do not answer to anything at all in her husband's 

 economy. Those five lancets, with their serrated 

 points, are the awls or piercers with which she 

 penetrates the skin of men or cattle. They cor- 

 respond to the mandibles, maxillae, and tongue, 

 which I shall explain hereafter in the mouth of 

 the gadfly. How they work you can observe in 

 the lowest figure, C. Here you have a bit of the 

 hand of a human subject not to put too fine 

 a point upon it (which is the besetting sin of 

 mosquitoes), the artist's. He has delivered him- 

 self up to be experimented on in the interests 

 of science. The sharp lancets have been driven 

 through the skin into the soft tissue beneath, and 

 the bent proboscis is now engaged in sucking up 

 the blood that oozes from it. If that were all, it 

 would be bad enough ; but not content with that, 

 the mosquito, for some mysterious reason, also 

 injects a drop of some irritant fluid. I have never 

 been able to see that this proceeding does her any 

 good, but it is irritating to us ; and that, perhaps, 

 is quite sufficient for the ill-tempered mosquito. 



Owing to the habits of the larva, mosquitoes are 

 of course exceptionally abundant in marshy places. 

 They were formerly common in the Fen district of 

 England, but the draining of the fens has now 

 almost got rid of them, as it has also of the fever- 

 and-ague microbe. 



As a rule, mosquitoes are nocturnal animals, 

 though in dark woods, and also in very swampy 

 districts, they often bite quite as badly through the 



