1804.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
089 
Fig. 1.—FEMALE MOSQUITO.—NATURAL SIZE, 
The Life of the Mosquito. 
Some one once wrote a book, called “ The Mis¬ 
eries of Human Life,” professing (or intending) 
to record and discuss every possible discomfort, 
from a cold breakfast to a missing shirt button. 
The book was incomplete, however, as it lacked a 
chapter on the mosquito. The omission may be 
accounted for by the fact that the writer lived 
in old England, and not hereabouts—the very 
paradise of mosquitoes. The reader has proba¬ 
bly many a time this summer exercised a little 
strategy with the mosquito, and when it was 
fairly settled, made a dexterous flank movement, 
come down with a slap, and exclaimed, “I got 
him this time.” You were all wrong, you did 
not get him at all, but you probably succeeded 
in crushing her. One of the Turkish Sultans 
believed that a female was at the bottom of all 
mischief; and when any disturbance took place 
in his dominions his first question was “who was 
she?” “The old brute,” you will say; well he 
was a brute, and the only excuse we can make 
for him is to suppose that having a taste for en¬ 
tomology, he had been 
studying mosquitoes, 
and finding that the 
females alone did the 
mischief, applied his 
knowledge to human 
affairs.—Did it ever 
occur to you, when by 
a well directed slap 
you demolish a mos¬ 
quito,that you destroy 
a very beautiful, and 
in spite of its blood¬ 
thirsty propensities, interesting object? By the 
aid of some magnified figures we can show that 
this is the case. In the first place, let us dispose 
of the male insect, fig. 2, which is' readily dis¬ 
tinguished by his plumes. He has the negative 
quality of not annoying us, lives but a short 
time, and what little food he requires he gets 
from flowers.—Fig. 1 shows the female, more 
magnified, and armed with her formidable pro¬ 
boscis. To understand her history we must go 
back to the egg. 
The female lays 
her eggs upon the 
water; finding a 
suitable place she 
supports herself 
by her two pairs 
of fore legs, and 
crossing the hind¬ 
er pair like a let¬ 
ter X, she depos¬ 
its the eggs -one 
after another, in 
this support made 
by the legs, put¬ 
ting them end¬ 
wise, side by side, 
and sticking them 
firmly together 
by means of a 
glutinous secre¬ 
tion which covers 
them. When the 
mass is complete, 
it is of the shape 
of a little boat, 
fig. 3, consisting 
of from 250 to 
350 eggs, which 
is set afloat and 
AND GREATLY .MAGNIFIED. abandoned to its 
fate. This little raft floats persistently, it will 
not sink, nor will hard usage break it up, nor 
| freezing destroy the vitality of the eggs. In a 
few days the larvae, as the first stage of the in¬ 
sects is called, are hatched, make their way out 
of the under side of the egg, and go off in search 
of food. Fig. 4, is the full grown larva, much 
magnified, with one of the natural size at the 
MALE MOSQUITO. 
Fig. 3.—BOAT OF MOSQUITO EGGS.- • 
left hand. They may be seen in any vessel of 
rain water that has been exposed for some days 
during summer; from their peculiar manner of 
locomotion they are called “ wigglers.” The pro¬ 
jection, A, near the tail, is a tube of hairs through 
which the wiggler breathes. When not disturb¬ 
ed it rests with its head downward, and with 
this tube at the surface of the water, but 
on the approach of danger it rapidly wiggles 
itself to the bottom of the vessel. After wig¬ 
gling through 8 to 15 of the first days of its 
existence, and casting its skin two or three 
times, the mosquito goes into the pupa state, 
fig. 5. In this condition it swims with its head 
upward and though not so lively as before, it 
moves and tumbles about by means of some 
paddles at the end of its tail. While in the 
pupa state it takes no food y and its breathing ar¬ 
rangements are quite reversed, for instead of 
respiring through the tube at the.end of its tail, 
it is furnished with two tubes at the head, 
through which it takes in air. This state of 
things lasts from 5 to 10 days, when the skin 
bursts and the perfect insect comes forth. This 
is a most critical period in the life of these insects, 
and they only can emerge with safety on a very 
still, sunny day. The skin of the pupa bursts 
open on the back and the insect first protrudes 
its head, then its chest gradually follows, and it 
stands erect in the shell with its legs still con- 
finedi and its wings limp and damp. The 
slightest breeze at this time would upset the 
frail boat, and the insect would be drowned. 
But a very small proportion of the whole suc¬ 
ceed in passing this last transformation in safe¬ 
ty. Soon the front pair of legs are extricated, 
and placed upon the water, as shown in fig. 6. 
This enables the insect to steady itself, and 
much diminishes the danger of upsetting. The 
sun speedily dries the 
wings, which are gradu¬ 
ally expanded;then the 
other legs are drawn out 
and placed on the edge 
of the pupa case, the 
antenna; and proboscis 
are elevated and the in¬ 
sect is able to quit its 
watery abode and fly off 
to serenade us witli its 
shrill note, and to relieve 
us of our surplus blood. 
Naturalists are not a- 
greed as to the manner 
in which the mosquito 
produces its peculiar 
and annoying sound; it 
is thought by some that 
the wings alone do not 
cause it, but that they 
are aided by the rapid 
vibrations of the mus¬ 
cles of the chest. It is 
said that the wings vi¬ 
brate 50 times in a sec¬ 
ond. If the cause of the song of the mosquito is 
not well understood, such is not the case with its 
other annoying peculiarity—its sting. Here the 
object is so small that the microscope must be 
called to our aid. When examined by the glass, 
the sting of the mosquito is found to be a very 
beautiful as well as complex instrument. Some 
dissections of the apparatus are given in fig. 7. 
A, shows the sting as it appears in its sheath 
when entire; A, shows the same with a part of 
the sheath removed. The parts of the sucker, 
with its lancet-shaped blades, are shown at G. 
The wonderful fineness of these points is seen 
in the ease with which they penetrate our thick, 
tough skin. The sting itself would cause us 
Fig. 4.—LARVA OF THE MOSQUITO. 
but little annoyance, were it not that the pro¬ 
boscis gives off an irritating secretion which in¬ 
flames the slight wound, and in some persons 
