5 2 
INSECTS. 
the food of the vast hordes of them that frequent the tropics. It is true that the 
females alone bite; but the proboscis is a highly perfected organ for piercing and 
sucking, and it might be supposed that it is extensively used for the purpose. Yet 
it has been pointed out that the vast majority of mosquitoes can never taste 
mammalian blood. In various places, such as parts of India for example, 
mosquitoes are found in swarms in spots never visited by human beings, and in 
which there are no large mammals. It has been suggested that, failing to obtain 
blood, mosquitoes support themselves on the juices of plants, but no observations 
in support of this have been recorded. 
The daddy long-legs ( Tipididce ) contain the finest species of this 
division of the order; the largest European form being the giant 
daddy long-legs ( Tipula gigantea), which has its wings clouded with brown, and 
measures about 1^ inches in length. Much larger kinds are, however, met with in 
Burma and China. The short and fleshy proboscis is not adapted for piercing, but 
merely for absorbing fluids; and the antennae are not feathery, as is so often the case 
in the gnats and midges, although in the species of the genus Ctenophora —which are 
of stouter build, and often brightly coloured black and yellow, thereby resembling 
some of the saw-flies—the antennae are pectinated in the male. In this family the 
eggs are laid and the larvae undergo their growth and change of form either in 
water or earth. The females of two of the commonest British species ( T . 
oleracea and T. paludosa) may be seen in summer and autumn flying about 
meadows and depositing their eggs here and there in the soil. When hatched, the 
larvae start feeding upon the roots of grass and corn, thereby doing considerable 
damage to farmers and gardeners, to whom they are known by the name, “ leather- 
jackets.” 
The true midges belonging to the family Chironomidce are 
Midges. . ° ® ® J 
nearly allied to the gnats, with which they are often confounded; but 
the mouth-parts are rarely adapted for piercing, the proboscis being short and soft. 
In the genus Ceratopogon the jaws of the females are, however, lancet-shaped, and 
capable of drawing blood. The little black midge that in the summer settles upon 
the hands and face and inflicts a sharp prick belongs to this genus. But the best 
known member of the family is the plumed midge ( Chironomus plumosus), which 
on summer evenings may be seen dancing in swarms along roads and lanes. Its 
name has been given to this species on account of the beautiful feathery-like 
antennae of the male. In connection with this species a case of luminosity has 
recently been recorded. An observer in Russian Asia found on the shores of Lake 
Issykkul a number of examples of this midge, and of an allied form belonging to 
the genus Corethra emitting a phosphorescent light. Failing to discover any 
luminous organ he came to the conclusion that the light was due to the presence 
in the insect of multitudes of parasitic bacteria, an opinion strengthened by 
the observation that the shining individuals were sluggish and never seen on the 
wing. 
The fungus-mido-es ( Miicetophilidce) take their name from the 
Fungus-Midges. . ° ° . 
fact that the larvae of most species feed upon fungi of various kinds. 
The perfect insects, which frequent damp situations, are all of small size, and mostly 
pale in colour. To this family belongs the so-called yellow-fever fly, a species of the 
