Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-11-07
TRAINING MOSQUITOES.
A Nan Who Has Devoted g'wenty
Years to Their 2ecuiiarities.
a Thing or Two for Scientific Fell
Iows---A Musquieo Battle
and Waltz.
louisville Conrier.Io11rnal.1

creatures they are.s He was a withredup,
yenoW-faced, parchment-sldnned little man
Win bright little eyes peering out OF BIG ugly
glasses that had been worn so long as to make
deep burrows in his nose. But bright,
chirrupy little fellow, withal. He had ON a
musty black suit anda big collar. He was In
the rear room of the second floor OF No. liz
East Market street. A strange little denofa
room it was The walls were hung with all
kinds of insects; the tables, and chairs, and
bureau were all covered with them. CLASSY
eyed beetles glared from between golden
winged butterflies and odd4ooking little
round bugs were wedged into all sorts Of out
of the way places,
''These other insects have picked upevery-
where" said the little man with a Quick,
careless motion toward the strangely tapes
tried walls. ."Fhis taRantula," Iicking up a.
big, hairy, spiderlike creature, st foursa in
Texas, and had hard time catching him.
Amt he fine specimen, thoughga said the
little fellow, lovingly putting the frightful
creature back in its place. Il have all kinds
OF b,sects, and have made them life study.
ha little money, enough to live on, and
am lie to devote all my time to them
But o. III the insects, the mu5quito is my ia
vorite. have SO identified myself with their
habits that l feel sometimes as though
would like to fly away and buzz-z-zrz OFF into
the air and out into the golden sunlight and
never be bothered with mortal troubles
again"
There was a look of such intensity in the
withered, parchment face, in the bright little
eyes, in the outstretched hands, SO much
earnestness and longing, that the reporter
half expected to see the transformation go
into effect at once.
81 am writing a book on mosquitoes" con-
tinued he, after the excitement had died out
of his face. Il am going to call it Twenty
Years Among Mosquitoes, by William 2.
Drieffeld,' and L will tell these scientific fell
lows thing or two. I have what I call a
hatchery over there in the corner, and I
make all sorts of experiments with them
You see it looks like a tub, and has little
water in the bottom. Now. if YOU look
closely you will see that large musquito in
the corner there. separated a little from that
Convey of sabethes there; no, not that one
with the red belt, the one next to him. That
is female, and finer specimen never
lived. She is three years old, and at the
least calculation has had ten thousand chill
dren.
Larger than the ordinary musquito? you
say. Why, Of course; Aspasia- that's her
name-is three and three-quarters times as
large as the ordinary culex I cross races,
and Aspasia is cross between the Florida
anopheles and the Mexican astes I never
let the air Of this room fa1l below 20 degrees
Fahrenheit and find that With this tenn
perature the average life of hea2thy mus
quito is years months and Is DAYS.
have one old male who is 10 years Old His
proboscis Is uselesS-paralyzed, think-and
his eyes have long since become useless to
him. His antenn9 have dropped OF, 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 O cilild,n
continued the old man, mournfully, looking
over toward where the gray veteran sat ON
the edge of the tub.
The old mans tone had dropped into mus
ing, subdued monotone. Accusing himself,
he said: 81 have had some queer experiences
with them. | do this to amuse myself [
done pay much attention to it, however,
added the little man apologeticaHy, as he
moved toward long glass case toward one
end of the room. which was almost entirely
hidden by a-blacis cloth. ri keep this over.
because the light Is painful to thern,r con-
tinued the old man as he drew the curtain or
and revealed q shallow box covered ON three
sides with glass. The bottom was covered
with mosquitoes Of all SIZES. Sliding the top
aside the old man made u peculiar hunn1ine
sound with his mouth So natural was it his
companion involuntarily brushed his hand
through the Dir, as if to ward off q willy and
enterprising muSquito. Presently out Of the
box come a swarm OF insects. The old man
held his brown skinny, open palm out, and
they alighted on it with that delicate, hest
tating manner peculiar 10 them. He counted
them over. There were sixteen. He con-
tinucd his strange humming, and the insects
formed into column two deep and circled
about his hand, keeping time to the old fell
lows peculiar humming. Suddenly he
stopped, and the insects stopped their march
ing. The two that were at the head of the
column, and who were apparently the
leaders, drew of at some little distance and
kept up a lOng-continued and monotonous
singing.
In a moment the old man began to hum in
a higher key, and another swarm came out
of the box. He extended his other brown.
skinny hand, and after circling about they
alightcd on it. They also formed q column
and marched about. Then the old man drew
his two withered palms together slowly. The
two columns were opposite now, and he be-
gan to sing, or rather hiss, in a harsh, irritat-
ing whisper. In a moment the two columns
rushed at each other, and were circlng round
and lost in the mazes of an ever-shiftinc
cloud of wings and long, hair-like legs The
Kissing suddenly ceased, and full, emphatic,
cultural sound took its place The effect
was instantaneous The clouds slowly fell
apart, the mass of legs and whirring wings
and long bodies separated, and in q few mo-
ments they were each ON the hand from
which they started
"The mosquitoes are governed altoeethsr
BY souud,' s0sd the slsx little man as he nut
them back into their box 'Tbelhs-e that all
things THAI have consciorSnesS that can feel
pain and pleasure, are able 20 communicates
their feelings enc to the other. By a careful
observation have found what effects INNS
quitoes. In u dim, vague way they under
stand each other. When you Iearn what
sounds produce certain impressions, the secret
Of governing them or training them is out.
That was battle You saw moment AGO.
None OF them were hurt It took me nearly
two yearS to learn them to do this. Thes,
are all females. By the way, may be YOU
did not know that the female mus{uitoes are
the blood-suckers, and that the males never
bother you ut night
Il have little hand Of five that I Matched
in ~ that dance tolerable welLn He again
lifted the box and uttered low cosxiny