I04 



Chapter XI 



DISSECTION AND EXAMINATION OF 



MOSQUITOES FOR THE MALARIAL 



PARASITE 



Dissection of Mosquitoes 



Necessary Apparatus. 



1. Slides and coverglasses. 



2. Two needles, preferably the straight 

 surgical needles described for making blood films, 

 as they have a cutting edge. 



3. Some salt solution, o'5 grammes per cent. 



4. It is convenient to have a board, twelve 

 by three inches, covered half with white and half 

 with black paper. 



Some mosquitoes are caught by slipping 

 over the top of the jar used for feeding another 

 empty jar of the same size, and they may be kept 

 alive in a dark cupboard for two or ' three days, 

 until their stomachs are quite free from blood 

 (seen by the complete disappearance of black from 

 the ventral portion of the abdomen). 



A few specimens are killed by chloroform or 

 tobacco smoke? or by ' concussion ' simply, in a test 

 tube. 



I. Observe (if a gravid female) two whitish 

 areas on either side of the "hinder portion of the 

 abdomen (ripening ovaries). If the blood in the 

 stomach be not digested, a dark mass will be seen 



