MOSQUITOES. 87 



observation. I was returning from an excursion by rail on a fine summer 

 evening, and to have an opportunity of enjoying it to the utmost, I took 

 my seat on an open car which had been fitted up to provide extra accommoda- 

 tion. The car in front of me was high roofed, and over a rear corner of it 

 had gathered one of these clusters, high and dense, which was vigorously 

 besporting itself in the rays of the setting sun. I thought to myself 

 " when we go, you will get left,'' but I was mistaken. When the train started 

 it went with it, and the cluster maintained its position with as much apparent 

 ease as when the car was at rest. Did each individual of that cluster keep 

 its eye on the car, so as not to fall behind ? But it could not accommodate its 

 movements to suit the lateral swaying of the car ; every now and again it 

 found itself a little more off or on the corner. It maintained its position until 

 darkness obscured or dispersed the dancers. 



Culex pipiens, like many of its relations, lives the earlier part of its life in 

 the water. The female mosquito, when ready to deposit her eggs, seeks for 

 stagnant water as the most suitable place on which to do so. The Rev. J. G-. 

 Wood thus clearly describes the operation : " Placing her front legs on a 

 piece of floating stick, straw, or anything that will support her tiny weight, 

 she allows the middle pair of legs to rest on the surface of the water, and 

 crosses the hind pair so as to look like the capital letter X. She then deposits 

 a rather long and spindle-shaped egg, and places it upright with the base down- 

 ward in the angle of the X. Another egg is quickly placed by the side of the 

 first and followed by others, all of which are glued together by a cement 

 which is not affected by water. Guided by the crossed legs, the eggs are 

 formed into a boat-like shape, and are left to float on the surface of the water." 



These boat-like masses are often longer than wide, the lower end of the eg°-s 

 being the largest, where the head of the future larva is to be, gives more sur- 

 face below than above, which naturally turns the ends upwards and helps to 

 give them the boat-like form. In a few days' time, according to the 

 weather, the eggs mature, and the tiny larva is ushered into what is for the 

 time its native element. In this state it is a particularly interesting creature 

 large in head, slender in body, with two openings at the tail ; one situated a 

 little to one side, and surrounded with fine hairs, opens into the breathing 

 tubes, the other being the end of the digestive canal. It is very active, pro- 

 pelling itself through the water, with a peculiar jerking and wrigglin^ move- 

 ment, which has procured for it the appellative " wriggler," going to the 

 bottom to feed, then rising to the surface to breathe. It may at times be 

 seen resting head down, with its breathing tube above the surface and its 

 mouth-parts moving as if it was taking nourishment. Having changed its skin 

 several times and eaten all it wants, it prepares for another change of form 

 and throwing aside its larval covering, it emerges a pupa. Its form is greatly 

 altered, much larger at the head-end, where the mouth-parts, wings and legs of 

 the future mosquito are bunched together in a rudimentary state, the abdomen 



