FOOD OF MALES 109 
an observation in the northwest United States in which he saw a mosquito en- 
gaged in feeding on the chrysalis of a butterfly. Theobald has on two occasions 
seen Culex nigritulus sucking at the body of Chironomus and other small 
Diptera. 
Male mosquitoes do not suck blood. In the chapter on the anatomy of the 
mouth-parts we have shown that some of the mouth organs are absent or greatly 
reduced in the male and on this account it is unable to pierce the skin. There 
are, however, records by good observers of male mosquitoes sucking blood. One 
of these is quoted herewith from Howard’s “ Mosquitoes ”: 
“Tn spite of what we have just said about the non-penetrating mouth parts of 
male mosquitoes, Dr. C. W. Stiles informs me that he and Hurst (the author of 
an important paper on the pupal stage of Culex, Manchester, 1890) made an 
observation in the summer of 1889, at Leipsic, which convinced him that either 
the males do occasionally bite or that occasionally females possess feathered an- 
tenne. Stiles and Hurst were out in a row-boat one evening and were bitten a 
number of times by Culex nemoralis. One individual which bit Stiles on the left 
hand was crushed, and in the crushing act a considerable quantity of blood 
exuded—enough to make a fair-sized blood-stain on his skin. Upon examining 
the dead body he was surprised to note that it possessed male antenne. Hurst 
also examined it, and remarked that it was the first instance he had known where 
a male Culex had actually been caught sucking blood. Dr. Stiles tells me that 
Hurst intended to place the observation on record, but that he does not think it 
was ever published. Dr. Stiles is so well known as an accurate observer, that 
some other explanation than faulty observation must be offered in this instance.” 
Ficalbi makes the following statement regarding Aédes calopus: “ A most 
remarkable peculiarity of this species is that the male stings as well as the female 
and sucks blood, producing a puncture equally painful with that produced by 
the female.” The statement has been widely quoted but we have been unable to 
find independent observations in confirmation of Ficalbi’s statement. In our 
own wide experience with this species we have never known the male to bite nor, 
of the numerous specimens handled by us, has there been any male with traces of 
a blood-meal. W. Wesché, on account of the reports of the male biting, has ex- 
amined the mouth-parts of several male Aédes calopus. He states that he 
“ found very short atrophying maxille, no mandibles, a ciliated hypopharynx, 
and the labrum and labium well developed,” a condition which does not support 
the idea that the male bites. 
There is still the possibility that the observations just quoted, of males suck- 
ing blood, are based upon abnormal indviduals. Wesché found that aberrant 
males occur in which the mouth-parts are fully developed. But one would still 
have to assume that, along with the complete mouth-parts, such males had in- 
herent the appetite for blood otherwise peculiar to the female. 
It seems certain that the females of many species and of certain genera are 
unable to pierce the skin of human beings and do not suck blood. The large and 
brilliant mosquitoes of the genus Megarhinus do not suck blood. The pro- 
boscis is so modified, the labium being entirely rigid, that they can not pierce 
with it; recent observations show that both sexes are habitual flower-feeders. 
Recently Mr. Edward Jacobson has discovered a mosquito, Harpagomyta 
