174 



COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 



a fly, is a popular one, and in common language is loosely 

 applied to all sorts of insects belonging to the family Culicidae, 

 and even to other families. As a rule where Culicidae are very 

 abundant and pertinacious they are called mosquitoes ; 



Fig. 36- 



On the left hand a figure of a "dapple-winged" mosquito, Anopheles 

 maculipennis, O. ; the small figure below indicates the natural size of 

 the animal. On the right hand a fully grown specimen of the aquatic larva 

 of the same species, about eight times the natural size. Ant, antennae ; 

 mxp, maxillary palp ; st, stigmatic opening of the respiratory organs of 

 the larva:. (After Nuttall and Shipley.) 



where less troublesome they are called gnats. The true 

 mosquitoes and gnats are dipterous insects of the family 

 Culicidae. They have small heads with large eyes ; slender 

 bodies and legs ; a single pair of narrow wings ; and long 



