482 INSECTA. 



and either short and terminated by two large lips, or prolonged into a 

 siphon-like rostrum, with two exterior palpi inserted at its base, 

 usually jSliform or setaceous and composed of four or five joints. 

 The thorax is thick and elevated; the wings are oblong; the halteres 

 are entirely exposed and apparently unaccompanied with alulae. 

 The abdomen is elongated, and most commonly formed of nine an- 

 nuli; it terminates in a point in the female, but is thicker at the end 

 and furnished with hooks in the males. The legs are very long and 

 slender, and are frequently used by these Insects to balance them- 

 selves. Several, particularly the smaller ones, collect in the air in 

 numerous swarms, and, as they flit about, form a sort of dance. 

 They are found at almost every season of the year. Some of the 

 females commit their ova to the water; others deposit them in the 

 earth or on plants. 



The larvae, always elongated and resembling worms, have a squa- 

 mous head, always of the same shape, the mouth of which is fur- 

 nished with parts analogous to maxillas and lips. They always 

 change their skin to become nymphs. The latter, sometimes naked, 

 and sometimes enclosed in cocoons constructed by the larvae, ap- 

 proximate in their figure to the perfect Insect, present their external 

 organs, and complete their metamorphosis in the usual manner. 

 They have frequently, near the head or on the thorax, two organs 

 of respiration resembling tubes. This family is composed of the 

 genera Culex and Tipula of Linnaeus. 



Some, in which the antennae are always filiform, as long as the 

 thorax, densely pilose, and composed of fourteen joints, have along, 

 projecting, filiform proboscis, containing a piercing sucker consist- 

 ing, of five setae. They constitute the genus 



Culex, Lin. 

 Or the Mosquetoes, where the body and legs are elongated and hairy; the 

 antennse densely pilose, the hairs forming tufts in the males; the eyes large 

 and closely approximated or convergent at their posterior extremity; the 

 palpi projecting, filiform, hairy, as long as the proboscis, and composed of 

 five joints in the males, shorter and apparently with fewer articulations in 

 tlie females. The proboscis is composed of a membranous, cylindrical 

 tube, terminated by two lips forming a little button or inflation, and of a 

 sucker consisting of five squamous threads which produces the effect of a 

 sting. The wings are laid horizontally, one over the other, on the body, 

 with little scales. 



The torment we experience from these Insects, particularly in the vicinity 



