plants, which they extract by puncturing the plant tissues; they will also feed on the exuding juices of fruit, or on any sort vegetable matter. The females, however, are notori- ous for their propensity for animal blood, and they by no means limit their quest for this article of food to human beings. The male mosquitoes, apparently, very rarely depart from a vegetarian diet. The pain from the bite of a female mosqmto and the subsequent irritation and swelling prob?bly result from the injection of the secre- tion from the salivary glands of the insect into the wound. It is said that the salira of the mosquito prevents coagula- tion of the blood. Because of the short time necessary for the completion of the lire cycle from egg to adult during summer, there are many generations of mosquitoes from spring to fall. The win?er is passed both in the adult and in the larval stage. Fertile females may survive cold weather in pro- tected places; and larvae round in large numbers, frozen solid in the ice of ponds, have become active on being thawed out, and capable of development when given a sufficient degree o? warmth. The vellow-fever mosquito, now known as .?lë'des aeg.vpti but at the rime of the discovery of its relation to yellow lever generally called ,çt«gom),ia.[asdata, is similar in its habits during the larval and pupal stages to the Culex mosquitoes. It lavs its eggs singly, however, and they float unattached on the surface of the water. The adult mosquito may be identified by its decorative markings. On the back of the thorax is a lyrelike design in white on a black ground; the joints of the legs are ringedwith white? the black abdomen is conspicuously cross-banded with white on the basal half of each segment. The male has |arge plumose antennae and |ong maxillary palpi. The female has a strong beak, but small palpi, and her an- tennae are of the short-haired form usual with female mosquitoes. The species of .iëdes shown in Figure 177 much resembles the vellow-fever mosquito, but it is a
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MOS.
