24 



PARASITES OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Family I. Culieidte — Mosquitoes. 

 Family II. Simuliida? — Buffalo gnats. 

 Family III. Taljanidte — Horseflies. 

 Family IV. Aluscidse — House fly and allies. 

 Family V. Hippoboscidae — Sheep "tick." 

 Family VI. a^]stri(l;i?— Botflies. 



Family I. Culicid.e; Mosquitoes 



Diptera (p. 23). — The mosquitoes are slender-bodied Diptera with 

 narrow wings which have a distinctive fringe of scale-like hair upon 

 their margins, and in most cases also on each of the wing veins. In the 

 female the proboscis is long, slender, and adapted for piercing. The 



Fig. 10. — Egg-mass of C'ulex pungens, above; young larva, greatly enlarged, at right; 

 young larvEe, less enlarged, below; enlarged eggs above at left (after Howard, Bui. No. 4, 

 Bureau of Entomology, Dept. of Agr.). 



males do not suck filood, differing from the females in the absence of 

 the piercing stylets and in the possession of plumose antennae. 



Mosquitoes have an adaptation to a very wide range, flourishing 

 equally as well in the frigid regions of the Arctic and Antarctic as in the 

 humid heat of the tropics. Until comparativelj^ recent years few species 

 were known, but more intensive study, in view of thpir importance as 

 carriers of disease and as pests of man, has Ijrought the mosquito fauna 

 of the world up to about one hundred genera including seven hundred 

 species, of which there are about fifty known in the United States. 



Breeding Habits. — In the larval stage all the known mosquitoes 

 are aquatic, but such differences occur in their life histories and habits 



