30 



AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



rests, ii supports itself on several of the tarsal joints. The legs of the 

 third pair arc, however, used very slightly in walking, bul they serve 

 continually as organs of touch, and in night they help to balance the 



body and determine its inclination. They arc often carried raised and 



curved forward over the body especially when the mosquito is stinging 



(Fig. 24). 



The abdomen is closely united to the thorax. Its eight rings, or 



segments, are each composed of an upper and a lower shield of chitin 



... and a soft connecting membrane. This soft "pleural mem- 



Abdomen ,, , ... 



brane permitsof movements of respiration, as well as of the 



very considerable distension of the abdomen noticeable in mosquitoes 



after a full meal. The abdomen tapers gradually toward the tip, and 



the last segment in the female mosquito bears the ovipositor by means of 



which the eggs are laid and, with the aid of the hind legs, arranged on 



Anophe/es 



Cu/ex 



BOOT AT AN ACUTE ANGLE 70 THE SURFACE 

 ON WHICH THE INSECT RESTS. 



FIG. 25. CHARACTERISTIC POSITIONS OF THE MALARIA AND COMMON MOSQUITO 



WHEN AT REST. 



Color of 

 Adult 



the surface of the water. In the male, the last abdominal segment ter- 

 minates in a pair of claspers (Fig. 17). 



The color of the mosquito can be said in general to range from light 

 yellow to dark-brown and almost black. Some species are nearly color- 

 less, or of a very transparent light green. The Malaria Mos- 

 quito is brown, the color increasing at first with age till the 

 chitin becomes thickened. The thorax is dark brown above, 

 with a light stripe in the middle and one on each side of the hack. 

 The sides of the thorax and the coxa' are light. The upper shields of 

 the abdomen are dark brown, the lower ones lighter and more yellowish. 

 The legs are dark brown above, sometimes with a purplish tinge, and 

 arc lighter below, with distinctly yellow spots at the knee-joints. The 

 proboscis and palps appear very dark brown or purplish black. The 

 hack of the thorax and the entire abdomen, the soft membrane excepted, 

 are covered with long, golden hairs. 



