BRITISH BLOODSUCKERS 237 



like the conventional representations of the " ark 

 of bulrushes " provided for the infant Moses. An 

 industrious mother will lay some two or three 

 hundred such eggs in a season, so that we need 

 not wonder at the great columns of mosquitoes that 

 often appear in damp places in summer. No. 2 

 shows the same raft seen from above, and ex- 



NO. 2. THE MOSQUITO'S EGG-RAFT, SEEN FROM ABOVE. 



cellently illustrates its admirable boat-shaped or 

 saucer-shaped construction. 



After about three days' time, the eggs begin to 

 hatch, and the active little larvae escape, wriggling, 

 into the water. No. 3, which is enlarged forty 

 diameters, exhibits the stages of the hatching pro- 

 cess. A sort of lid or door at the lower end of the 



