I" 'I. \SIIUr.HTS ON \.\TI 



hy minute variations in the antcnn.e and otlu-r 

 almost microscopic peculiarities. Indeed, if I 

 hadn't told you this was an Indian mosquito, 

 you would never have discovered that it wasn't 

 a Fenland gnat. 



The mosquito is in a certain sense an amphi- 

 bious animal ; that is to say, during the course of 

 its life, it has tried both land and water. It begins 

 existence as an aquatic creature, and only step- 



NO. i. MOSQUITO'S EGG-RAFT, SEEN SIDEWAYS. 



ashore at last to fly in the open air when it has 

 arrived at its adult form and days of discretion. 

 The mother mosquito, flitting in a cloud-like swarm 

 of her kind, haunts for the most part moist and 

 watery spots in thick woods or marshes, and lay- 

 her tiny eggs on the surface of some pool or stag- 

 nant water. They are deposited one by one, and 

 then glued together with a glutinous secretion into 

 a little raft or boat, shown in No. i, which fl 

 about freely on the pond or puddle. It looks just 



