Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-10-04
HABITS OF THE MOSQUITO.
\ Talk with Man who has Spent
Twenty Years with Them.

Cincinnati Enquirer
81 have devoted twenty years to study
of the habits of mosquitoes, and curious
lot of creatures they are.'' He was a
withered-up, yellOw-faced, parchment
skinned little man. with bright little ewes
peering out of big ugly glasses that had
been worn so long as to make deep fur
rows in his nose. But bright chirrupy
little fellow, withal. He had on a musty
black suit and big collar. He was in
the rear room of the second floor of T19
East Market street. a strange little den
of room it was. The walls were hung
with all kinds Of insects; the tables and
chairs and bureau were all covered with
them. Glass-eyed beetles glared from
between gOlden-Winged butterflies. and
odd-looking little round bugs were wedged
into all sorts of out of the way places.
Il am writing a book on mosquitoes"
continued he. after the excitement had
died out of his face. M0squitOes.' by Will
liam p. Drietfeld, and l will tell these
scientific fellows thing or two. / have
what call hatchery over there in the
corner, and make all sorts of expert
ments with them. You see it looks like a
tube and has little water in the bottom.
Now il you look closely you will see that
large mosquito in the corner there. separ-
ated a little from that cOvey of SdbetkeS
there; no. not that one with the red belt,
the next to him. That is female and a
finer specimen never lived. She is three
years old, and at the least calculation
has had 10000 children,
II never let the air of this room fall
below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. and | find
that with this temperature the average
life of healthy mosquito is years 9
months and Is .days. have one old male
who is 10 years old. His proboscis is use
less-paralyZed, l think-and his eyes
have long since become useless to him.
His antenne have dropped off, and of the
six sharp bristles within his sucking pro-
boscis which he had when [ caught him.
not one remains. He couldn't even bite
a child" continued the old man, mourn
fully looking over toward where the gray
veteran sat on the edge of the tub.
''But | was going on to call your atten
tion to Aspasia. Your eyes are young
and probably you can see how her legs
are crossed in the form of an Y. You
doubtless see some tiny objects attached
to this cross and wedged together, almost
covering the interspace between her legs.
If you had microscope these objects
would appear as little jugs with handles.
They are eggs. When Aspasia has laid
$50 of them her legs will uncrOss and
the eggs will float away like a raft. These
eggs produce those wigglers you see over
in that corner and they in turn change to
the tumblers you find below your
hand there. 1 have little glass strips,
as you see, to divide them. | could
tell you much of the transformation from
one stage of being to another, more beau
tiful and strange under the microscope
than all the pageantry of a tournament
during the Crusades. | could tell of how
their skins change four times, of that mar
Velous mechanism that an All-wise Gre
atOr has arranged more perfect than the
most finished work of man, of their queer
tumble, of the glorious resurrection when
the transparent covering of the pupa
breaks and the perfect mosquito with
wings and legs and all its wonderful an
atOmy steps forth to conquer and to die.v