BLOOD-SUCKING NEMATOCERA : PSYCHODID^ 117 



midges, of a slenderer build than most Psychodidce, and 

 carrying their wings, in repose, uplifted. The joints of the 

 antennae are not remarkably constricted ; the legs are 

 extremely lanky; the proboscis is long, and the tips of the 

 piercing parts may project beyond the labium ; and the 

 wings are rather narrow, with all three branches of the 2nd 

 longitudinal vein readily seen. 



It is commonly supposed that the female alone sucks 

 blood ; but in some species the male has mouth-parts quite 

 like those of the female, and Neveu-Lemaire says of an 



Fig. 24. — Female Phlcbotomus. 



Fig. 2G. — Fhlebotomus, young Larva; 

 after Newstead. 



African species (P. duboscqii), " it seems that the males can 

 bite as well as the females." The species of Fhlebotomus are 

 so small that they can creep through the meshes of an 

 ordinary mosquito-net, and their bite causes great local 

 irritation. As a rule these insects bite at night, and rest by 

 day in dark corners of rooms, bathrooms, privies, cellars, etc. 

 According to Grassi the female of the common species of 

 Southern Europe {P. papatasii) lays about forty eggs {cf. Fig. 

 25), the larva (Fig. 26) can be recognised by long bristles — 

 two in the young, four in the full-grown larva — situated on a 

 pair of tubercles on the last segment of the body, and the 

 pupa by the shrivelled larval skin which adheres to the 



