28 LIFE AND HABITS OF DOMESTIC MOSQUITOS 



breathes the air, the Stegomyia has only a short tube. 

 The mosquito larva spends at least ten days in the 

 water before it emerges into the air as a full-grown 

 mosquito. During this time it grows much larger, 

 and undergoes four moults. For the last twenty -four 

 hours prior to its birth into the world as a flying 

 insect, it is found in the comma-like stage known as 

 the pupa or nymph. During this stage it bobs about 

 in the water, breathing at the surface, but takes no 

 food. All these stages are known as the larval 

 metamorphosis. 



From the moment the mosquito egg is laid, the 

 living larva begins its battle of life. Its life in the 

 egg itself is very short if there happen to be any gold- 

 fish in the water, or a bird may gobble up the whole 

 egg-raft. As soon as the larva has left the egg and 

 become a swimming wriggler, its first trouble may be 

 to find food. Its mother has flown away to annoy 

 another human being or animal, and has left it to 

 take care of itself, together with its three hundred 

 brothers and sisters. If the mosquito larva can find 

 suitable food, and the water is warm, it grows 

 rapidly, moulting its skin every two or three days, 

 and gradually growing darker in colour, until at the 

 end of the tenth day it enters the pupa stage after 

 having shed its skin for the last time. 



Both the larva and the pupa are not fish, but 

 insects. They must breathe the air from the atmo- 

 sphere. The larva has a tube at the end of its tail, 

 which it thrusts through the surface of the water, 

 and so breathes, The pupa has short tubes on its 



