84 
HOW TO COLLECT 
care. As important specific characters are furnished by the scales, 
wings, and legs, it is of the utmost consequence that the scales should 
not be rubbed off, or the wings and legs injured. Unless attention is 
paid to this point the specimens will probably be quite worthless for 
determination or description. 
Spirit Specimens. 
Specimens for determination may also be sent in spirit. Each 
species should be sent in a separate tube, and the tube numbered to 
correspond with the number of a dried specimen of the same species. 
They are best preserved in 70 per cent, alcohol. 
Specimens should be Pinned Immediately they are Dead. 
Mosquitoes are best pinned as soon as possible after death. 
Specimens should be pinned in three positions — (1) to show the 
dorsal view, (2) the ventral and (3) the lateral aspects. When 
travelling in haste, specimens may be kept in pill-boxes partly filled 
with medicated cotton-wool. 
Number of Specimens of Each Species Required. 
In collecting specimens of a species of mosquito for determination, 
some half-dozen examples of each sex should, if possible, always be 
obtained and pinned or preserved dry, and the same number in 
spirit. 
How to Distinguish the Sexes. 
The male mosquitoes can usually be distinguished from the females 
(which, in the majority of species, alone bite and suck blood) by the 
possession of plumose antennae, forming tufts in front of the head (in 
certain genera, such as Deinocerites and Sabethes, the male antennae 
are not plumose ; the genitalia must then be examined) • in the 
females the antennae, though long, are nearly bare (having whorls of 
only short hair at the bases of the joints), while the palpi in the 
case of females are quite short, except in the genera Anopheles 
