CHAPTER XXIV 

 Bahia Honda to Cabanas 



Sunday, June yth. Some of the Barrera's party 

 did not awake this morning, for the simple reason 

 that they had not slept. Despite our new nets, 

 most carefully adjusted, we suffered a veritable 

 massacre by the mosquitoes. In the fact that 

 only female mosquitoes bite we may derive a half- 

 hearted consolation. A query naturally arises 

 anent these blood-thirsty insects; How can such 

 countless swarms of them find enough food? 

 Surely, if all mosquitoes had just one square meal, 

 not a drop of red blood would be left — the Mam- 

 malia would suddenly become extinct. Obviously 

 blood cannot be their sole diet. 



Since the discovery that mosquitoes are the 



source, indeed the only source, of malarial and 



yellow-fever infection, a considerable amount of 



close research work has been devoted to a few 



species, particularly of the genera Stegomya and 



Anopheles y which are known to be the disease- 



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