Ernest Edward Austen

“ Some species are normally phytophagous, and the vast majority, at any rate, appear to be capable of continuing to exist and reproducing their kind upon a purely vegetarian diet. As a rule the blood-sucking habit is confined to the females, but in the case of a few species it is said to be common to both sexes. The thirst for blood is stimulated by heat, and in temperate climates it is only during hot weather that mosquitoes are troublesome. Some species of mosquitoes, such as the common gnat (Culex pipiens) , are rarely found away from human habitations ”

“ The nature of the breeding-place varies greatly according to the species, and while many of the mosquitoes that infest houses will breed even in the smallest accidental accumulation of water such as may have collected in a discarded bottle or tin, the larvae of other species less closely associated with man are found in natural pools or ditches, at the margins of slow-moving streams, in collections of water in hollow trees and bamboo-stumps, or even in the water-receptacles of certain plants. ”

“ In Europe and North America the continued existence of species is ensured by the hibernation of impregnated females, or else the winter is passed in the egg or occasionally in the larval state. In tropical climates with a well-marked dry season mosquitoes pass into a semi-dormant condition during the period when there is little Water in which to deposit their eggs. ”

“ The wide distribution of certain species is undoubtedly attributable to the agency of ships and trains; under natural conditions mosquitoes seldom travel far from their breeding grounds, although the powers of flight of some species are greater than has been supposed. ”

“ The prolongation of the lower lip or labium into a prominent proboscis, which in the female sex contains the full complement of piercing organs found in blood-sucking Diptera, namely paired mandibles, paired maxillae, a tubular hypopharynx (the common outlet of the salivary glands) , and an upper lip or labrum. (2) The presence of variously formed scales on the body and its appendages: the head is clothed with scales, the thorax with hairs or scales, and the abdomen with either hairs or scales, or both ”

“ The result has been that in subsequent years mosquitoes have been collected, studied and described by naturalists and medical men in all parts of the globe. Nearly 100 genera and about 700 species of mosquitoes are now recognized, but in all probability the total number of species is not less than 1000. ”