46 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



during the spring, summer, or early autumn, it usually 

 lives no more than a week or two ; but many of the female 

 mosquitoes that develop late in the autumn seek out a 

 protected spot in which to spend the winter, and thus are 

 ready in the spring to perpetuate the species by laying 

 eggs in the stagnant pools formed by early rains. 



All that the mosquito needs, therefore, in order to develop 

 its offspring from egg to adult stage is a bit of water that will 

 remain relatively undisturbed for about two weeks. Hence, 

 old tomato cans, bits of crockery, and other receptacles 

 carelessly left in many a back yard, furnish breeding places 

 for all kinds of mosquitoes. 



Truth compels us to remark, in passing, that the male 

 mosquito is a decent sort of fellow, keeping close to his breed- 

 ing place and feeding on plant juices or eating nothing at 

 all during his brief existence in the adult stage. It is the 

 lady mosquito that torments us by singing her piercing song 

 and piercing our suffering skins. But as in most other suffer- 

 ings that we endure, the fault is largely our own. At least 

 we can secure inununity if as communities we but persist 

 in applying the simple methods of extermination outlined 

 in 42. 



37. Life history of malaria-transmittuig mosquitoes. — 



The mosquito we have just described, while a nuisance 

 wherever foimd, does not, so far as is known, cause disease. 

 There are, however, two kinds of mosquitoes that are not 

 only a nuisance but a menace to life and health wherever 

 they are found ; namely, those that transmit malaria and 

 yellow fever. The first of these is the Anopheles mosquito, 

 commonly known as the " malaria mosquito," for as we shall 

 soon see, malaria cannot be transmitted from one human 

 being to another except through the agency of this species 



