OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CLASS — INSECTA 185 



it has previously bitten a person having malaria, the germ 

 that causes malaria. Moreover, whenever this particular 

 kind of mosquito bites a person, it injects some of those 

 gernis into the blood of that individual, thereby inducing 

 malaria. Very good 

 proof has also been 

 adduced to the effect 

 that a certain species 

 of mosquito carries 

 yellow fever from one 

 person to another. 

 Thus it has happened 

 in recent years that 

 the mosquitoes have 

 become very notorious 

 insects. The female 

 of a common species 

 of mosquito lays its 

 eggs — two or three 

 hundred — in small, 

 dark, boat-shaped 

 masses (Figs. 126 and 

 127) on the surface of 

 the water. In about 

 two days these hatch 

 into minute larvae 

 called " wiggletails " 

 or " wigglers " (Fig. 

 128). The " wiggletails " live in the water, but are obliged 

 to come to the surface for air. Here they hang head down- 

 ward (Culex) with a tube, called the breathing tube, on 

 the end of the abdomen, projecting just above the surface. 



C 



Fig. 127. — Eggs of mosquito, enlarged : 

 A, fresh egg with collar; B, egg a little older, 

 without collar; C, shell from which the wiggle- 

 tail has escaped. 



