OCT 14 1905 
No. 6.—ALIMENTARY CANAL OF THE MOSQUITO. 1 
BY MILLETT T. THOMPSON. 
INTRODUCTION. 
(iAI<DE 
Literature on the mosquitoes is rather extensive, especially that 
which deals with the genus Anopheles. Comparatively few articles, 
however, discuss the internal anatom} 7 of these flies and in many of 
those papers where details of internal structure are given, these 
are not cited from morphological motive. The structure of the 
salivary glands or the alimentary canal may be described, but it is 
to make clear the life history of the malarial Plasmodium or as a 
guide in dissecting when studying these parasites, and not from 
interest in the anatomy itself. In view of the secondary purpose of 
such descriptions it has not seemed best in this paper to make a 
complete survey of articles of this class or to comment at length on 
the interpretations of structure that are presented. Criticism and 
discussion will be limited to the few researches which deal exten¬ 
sively with the internal anatomy or which discuss this from a mor¬ 
phological view-point. 
Of the studies that fall into this last group, several are found 
which give accounts of Anopheles. Nuttall and Shipley’s, “The 
structure and biology of Anopheles ” and Christophers’ “ The anat¬ 
omy and histology of the adult female mosquito ” are comprehensive 
and very valuable. Annett and Dutton’s “Report” is excellent but 
more limited in scope. As far as anatomical details are concerned 
at least, Giles’ “Handbook of the gnats or mosquitoes” is unre¬ 
liable. I have been unable to obtain Grandpre and Charmoy’s 
“Les moustiques.” With respect to Culex on the other hand, I 
know of no single comprehensive work, but scattered descriptions 
of the various internal organs exist. The external form of the 
larvae and pupae of mosquitoes has been studied considerably, but 
the internal anatomy of these stages has been neglected. Raschke 
gives the best account for the larva in “ Die larve von Culex nemor- 
osus.” Our knowledge of the metamorphosis of the internal organs 
1 From the Biological laboratory, Clark university, and the Laboratory of 
the L T . S. bureau of fisheries, Woods Hole, Mass. 
