DIP TER A. 
437 
The family includes only a single genus, Dixa . 
We have found the adult midges common on rank her¬ 
bage, growing in a swampy place, in a shady forest. 
Family CULICID^ (Cu-lic'i-dae). 
The Mosquitoes . 
The form of mosquitoes is so well known that it would 
be unnecessary to characterize the Culicidae were it not 
that there are certain mosquito-like insects that are liable 
to be mistaken for members of this family. 
The mosquitoes are small flies, with the abdomen long 
and slender, the wings narrow, the antennae 
plumose in the males (Fig. 511), and usu- 
ally with a long, slender, but firm proboscis. 
The thorax lacks the transverse V-shaped 
suture characteristic of the crane-flies ; and 
vein V of the wings is only two-branclied 
(Fig. 512). 
of mosquitoes is a fringe of scale-like hairs /»female, 
on the margin of the wing and also, in all known American 
forms, on each of the wing-veins. 
But the most distinctive feature Antennae of 
mosquitoes. male; 
II 
Fig. 512.—Wing: of Culex. 
The larvae of mosquitoes, so far as they are known, are 
aquatic. But it is probable that some species breed in the 
ground, for mosquitoes occur in arid regions far from water. 
The transformations of those species with aquatic larvae 
are easily observed. The immature forms may be found in 
