85 
MOSQtTlTOES ( C VLICIT)jE) . 
Spirit Specimens. 
Specimens may also be sent in spirit. Each species should be 
sent in a separate tube, and the tube numbered to correspond with 
the number of a dried specimen of the same species. They are best 
preserved in 70 per cent, alcohol. 
Specimens should be Pinned Immediately they are Dead. 
Mosquitoes are best pinned as soon as possible after death. 
Specimens should be pinned in three positions—(1) to show the 
dorsal view, (2) the ventral and (3) the lateral aspects. When 
travelling in haste, specimens may be kept in pill-boxes. They 
must be kept from rolling about by tissue- or cigarette-paper. One 
or more specimens, according to the size of the box, may be put at 
the bottom, and then a piece of tissue paper laid on them, with just 
sufficient pressure to prevent them from moving, care being taken 
not to crush the specimens. If there is space vacant at the top of 
the box, it should be filled with cotton-wool (medicated preferred), 
but it ’is never advisable to let the wool come in contact with 
the specimens. 
Number of Specimens of Each Species Required. 
In collecting specimens of a species of mosquito some lialf-dozen 
examples of each sex should, if possible, always be obtained and 
pinned or preserved dry, and the same number in spirit. 
How to Distinguish the Sexes. 
The male mosquitoes can usually be distinguished from the females 
(which, in the majority of species, alone bite and suck blood) by the 
possession of plumose antennae, forming tufts in front of the head (in 
certain genera, such as Deinocerites and Sabethes, the male antennae 
are not plumose ; the genitalia must then be examined) ; in the 
females the antennae, though long, are nearly bare (having whorls of 
onlv short hair at the bases of the joints), while the palpi in the 
case of females are quite short, except in the genera Anopheles 
and Cycloleppteron, in which the palpi are as long as the proboscis 
in both sexes, but are more swollen at the tips in the males. 
