Jamauy 13, 1005.] 



SCIENCE. 



71 



of novelty or originality. If so, I can but 

 humbly acknowledge my ignorance, adding 

 once more that this unhappy condition merely 

 strengthens my case! 



Fr.vncis B. Sumneh. 



ULTR.V-VIOLET LIGHT IN PliOTO-illCROGRAPH Y. 



To THE Editor of Science: Apropos of Dr. 

 Cleveland Abbe's letter in a recent issue of 

 Science, 1 would call the attention of your 

 readers to the fact that the developments in the 

 use of utra-violet light in photo-micrography 

 with apparatus designed at Jena is described 

 in some detail in Engineering (London), for 

 December 2, 1904, page 760. 



Clifford Richardson. 



now DOES AN'OPIIELES BITE? 



In a recent number of Science Professor 

 Washburn, in the course of some remarks on 

 the mosquito exhibit at St. Louis, prepared by 

 me for the New Jersey State Museum, ques- 

 tions the accuracy of a figure of Anopheles 

 in the act of biting. I do not understand 

 him to say positively that the figure is inac- 

 curate, only that it had been his belief that 

 the biting position resembled the resting posi- 

 tion more nearly. The figure in question, 

 which was a large colored one calculated to 

 attract the attention of the passers-by, was 

 intended to duplicate the picture given by 

 Nuttall and Shipley in their work on ^1?k)- 

 pheles, its structure and habits. It is really 

 a very accurate copy of their plate and the 

 position in my chart is just exactly as pub- 

 lished. This is an explanation, not a justifi- 

 cation ; if the figure is wrong it should not 

 have been put on exhibition in that way; but 

 is it wrong? 



When I read Professor Washburn's note I 

 tried to recall my own experience with Ano- 

 pheles. I recall distinctly, watching speci- 

 mens bite on several occasions, and particu- 

 larly at Cape May, where Anopheles crucians 

 was very plentiful in 1903 and bit freely dur- 

 ing the early morning hours. This habit is 

 unusual in the genus and attracted my atten- 

 tion, so that I gave the insects every oppor- 

 tunity to bite; yet, while I can recall dis- 

 tinctly all the surrounding circumstances, I 

 do not recall just what position the insect 

 assumed when biting. I questioned in turn 



every member of the field and office force, and 

 found that they were equally uncertain in 

 the matter. All of them had been bitten and 

 all of them were able to recall specific occa- 

 sions where they watched the insect bite, yet 

 none of them would say positively just what 

 the biting position of the insect really was. 



During the summer of 1902 Dr. Herbert 

 P. Johnson studied Anopheles for me near 

 Newark, N. J., and kept a number of the in- 

 sects in confinement, allowing them to bite 

 from time to time, and of course watching 

 the operation. I wrote him to the St. Louis 

 University, where he is at present engaged, 

 and received an answer as follows : " While 

 I have not so distinct a mental picture of the 

 operation as I would like to possess I am very 

 confident he [Professor Washburn] is wrong. 

 The biting attitude he mentions would be a 

 most extraordinary one, and for this reason: 

 it is obvious that the mosquito pumping ap- 

 paratus must penetrate the epidermis before 

 any blood can be drawn and the epidermis is 

 made up of many layers of cells. To thrust 

 its lancets in obliquely is evidently to encoun- 

 ter more resistance, do more work, and with 

 less prospect of success than to thrust verti- 

 cally through the many layers of cells of the 

 epidermis. If there is an easy way of doing a 

 thing, nature does not ignore it for a mor«j 

 difficult way. The only way in which Ano- 

 pheles could introduce its bill vertically and 

 still keep it in line with its body, would be 

 for the body to assume the vertical position, 

 which I have never seen it do. It is always 

 somewhat oblique." 



Mr. Henry L. Viereck, who spent the entire 

 summer at Cape May for me and who espe- 

 cially studied A. crucians, writes: "In biting 

 Anopheles crucians stand like A. punclipennis 

 as shown in Berkeley's figure 17; that is, with 

 the body and beak nearly in a straight line 

 and at an angle somewhat greater than 60° 

 to the surface. The disposition of the legs 

 during the act I can not recall exactly, but I 

 feel quite siu'e they were very much as in the 

 figure I have referred to." 



These communications were hardly satis- 

 factory and we looked up every reference that 

 was available, only to find that no one who 



