12 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
BY THE WAYSI D E 
Published ou the tenth of each month except July and 
August. 
The official organ of the Wisconsin and Illinois Audu¬ 
bon Societies. 
Twenty=five cents per year. Single Copies 3 cents. 
All communications should be sent to Miss Ituth Mar¬ 
shall. Appleton. Wis. 
N ATURE ST VDYIN SCHOOLS 
Mosquitoes. 
Out of the thousands pf insects in the 
world, what ones shall we select as sub¬ 
jects for the nature lessons ? So far as 
our relations to them are concerned, 
there afre two kinds, those that are 
friends and those that are enemies. To 
the former class belong the bees; there 
are hosts in the latter class, and it is im¬ 
portant that the children know a few of 
these, too. In all cases they should get, 
not only the external characters, but the 
life histories and the relation to man. 
The mbsquito. is one of the most com¬ 
mon of injurious insects. It belongs to 
the class Diptera, and its relatives are 
the Ties. They have, as the name indi¬ 
cates, but two wings, instead of four as 
most insects have. However, the rudi¬ 
ments ofi the second pair may easily be 
found. The metamorphosis, or change 
from the young to the.adult, is verv com- 
plex. In fact, the insect passes through 
two distinct forms before reaching ma¬ 
turity, the larval and the pupal stages. 
The mouth, parts are peculiarly devel¬ 
oped to form a piercing organ, two sharp 
needles lying in a proboscis formed by 
the upper and lower iip. Its usual food 
is probably the juices of plants, but when 
it has a chance,* it pierces the skin of 
animals and sucks the blood. 
It is the females only which “bite.” If 
one be captured when it is gorged with 
blood, and confined in a glass containing 
a little water, the eggs will be deposited 
on the surface. A twig should be placed 
in the water for the mosquito to rest 
upon. The eggs are placed together in a 
case called a boat. They can often be 
found on the surface of stagnant water. 
They hatch the same day. The larvae 
or “wigglers” are worm-like. They swim 
about in the water, coming to the sur¬ 
face to breathe through the air tubes 
which open at the posterior end of the 
body. In a few days they change into 
pupae; unlike most insect pupae, the 
mosquito is active. These are also called 
“wigglers”; but the}’’ are shaped like a 
comma. From these the mature insects 
issue in a short time, to repeat the life 
cycle and incidentally to make life mis¬ 
erable for man and domesticated ani¬ 
mals. 
Mosquitoes were commonly regarded as 
necessary evils until a few years ago when 
the discovery that certain species (not 
the one commonly found in Wisconsin), 
were the carriers of diseases like malaria 
and yellow fever, made it imperative that 
some way be found by which we could 
be rid of the pests. A moment’s consid¬ 
eration shows that the time to attack the 
insect is when it is in the immature stages. 
o 
A few drops of kerosene oil on the sur¬ 
face of a glass containing wigglers will 
destrov them, because they cannot get 
air at the surface. This can easily be 
«/ 
demonstrated. But the best way to be 
rid of these insects is to see that no 
water is allowed to stand when the eggs 
can be deposited. 
Children can be shown this after the 
life history has been taught, and it will 
lead them to see the necessity for clean 
and well kept yards and streets. A few 
intelligent lessons in school will go a long 
ways in educating the public along the 
lines of sanitation and control of noxious 
insects. 
R. M. 
