INSECTS POPULARLY CALLED MOSQUITO. 



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unlike it in form and colour, but rather smaller. I shall here give the 

 figures and descriptions of these two mosquitoes, as curious and 

 interesting to those who, like myself, are fond of such inquiries. 



Fig. 1. Culex molt'stus. — a, natural size ; b, magnified. Fig. 2. Simitium pertinax.-r e, natural 

 size ; d, magnified. 



1. Culex molestus, Kollar ; in Portuguese, Mosquitto. The 

 colour is dusky brown, the corselet and feet paler, the wings shining, 

 and the wing ribs somewhat indistinct. The corselet is uniform in 

 colour, and the abdomen has the rings grey. The body is one sixth of an 

 inch in length. The wings are finely fringed, the wing ribs being 

 darker and hairy. The antennae have fourteen joints and are beset with 

 tufts of hair disposed in whirls at the joints, these being much longer 

 and thicker in the male. The beak (der russet) is composed, as in 

 other gnats of several pieces, namely a fleshy, semi-cylindrical lip, 

 terminating in a divided tip, another grooved lip of a horny texture, 

 and four fine bristles, two on each side. 



Parts of the mouth in a gnat, magnified and separated.— a, b, the upper lip and upper jaws 

 carrying the jointed feelers ; /, c, d, the under jaws and tonguelet ; e, the under lip. 



It is the female only which is troublesome as a bloodsucker, causing 

 a burning pain followed by an inflamed swelling produced by the poison- 

 ous fluid she instils into the wound for the purpose of rendering the 

 blood thinner and more easily sucked. The species is so annoying both 

 to men and cattle, that some districts, where they are unusually abun- 

 dant, have been quite abandoned by the colonists. This will not appear 



