The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-10-18
TRAINING MOSQUITOES.
A Man Who Has Devoted Twenty
Years to Their Peculiarities.
A Thing or Two for Scientific Eel.
lows---A Musquito Battle
and n waltz.


the habits of mosquitoes, and a curious lot Of
creatures they are" He was a withered-up,
y~ellow-faced, parchment-skinned little man
with bright little eyes peering out of big ugly
glasses that had been worn SO long as to make
deep burrows in his nose. But n bright,
chirrupy little fellow, withal He had on a
misty black suit and a big collar. He was in
the rear room of. the second floor of No. l19
East Market street. A strange little den of a
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 odd-looking little
round bugs were wedged into all sorts of out
OF the way places
"These other insects / have picked up every
where said the little man with a quick,
careless motion toward the strangely tapes
tried walls. This tarantula," picking up a
big, hairy, spider-like creature, ~ found in
Texas, and had a hard time catching him
Amt he a fine specimen, thoughf' said the
little fellow, lovingly putting the frightful
creature back in its place. 81 have all kinds
of insects, aud have made them a life study.
l have a little money, enough to live on, and
am able to devote all my time to them.
But Of all the insects, the mosquito is my ia
vorite. / have so identified myself with their
habits that l feel sometimes as though 1
would like to fly away and buzz-z-z-z 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 tho transformation go
into effect at once.
81 am writing a book on musquitoes,n con-
tinued he, after the excitement had died out
OF his face. 81 am going to call it Twenty
Years Among Mosquitoes, by William F.
Drieffeld,' and l will tell these scientific fell
lows a thing or two. 1 have what I call a
hatchery over there In the corner. and l
make all sorts of experiments with them.
You see it looks like a tub, and has a little
water in the bottom. Now, il you look
closely you will see that large musquito in
the corner there. separated a little from that
covey Of sabethes there; no, not that one
with the red belt, the one next to him. That
is n female, and a finer specimen never
lived. She is three years old, and at the
least calculation has had ten thousand chill
dren.
Larger than the ordinary musquitoi you
say. Why, of course; Aspasia-thats her
name-is three and three-quarters times as
large as the ordinary culex. 1 cross races,
and Aspasia is a cross between the Florida
anopheles and the Mexican edes. 1 never
let the air of this room fall below 10 degrees
Fahrenheit, and l find that with this tenn
perature the average life of a healthy mus
quito is 5 years 0 months and Is lays. 1
have one old male who is 10 years old. His
proboscis is useless-paralyzed, l think-and
his eyes have long since become useless to
him. His antennm 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 a child,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 a mus
ing, subdued monotone. Accusing himself,
he said; ~ have had some queer experiences
with them. L do this to amuse myself. l
don't pay much attention to it. however,
added the little mar alphabetically as he
moved toward a long glass case toward one
end of the room, which was almost entirely
hidden by a black cloth. al keep this over,
because the light is painful to them" con-
tinued the old man as he drew the curtain Off
and revealed a 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 a peculiar humming
sound with his mouth. So natural was it his
companion involuntarily brushed his hand
through the air, as il to ward off a 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 to them. He counted
them over. There were sixteen. He CON
tinued his strange humming, and the insects
formed into a column two deep and circled
about his hand, keeping time to the old fell
lows peculiar humming. Suddenly he
stopped, aud the insects stopped their march
ing. The two that were at the head of the
column, and who were apparently the
-N
kept up q l~ong-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 extepded his other brown,
skinny hand, and after circling about they
hlighted on it They also formed a column
and marched about. Then the old mar drew
bis 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 circling round
and lost in the mazes of an ever-shiftinp
cloud OF wings and long, hair-like legs The
kissing suddenly ceased, and n fun, 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 a few mo-
ments they were each on the hand from
which they started.
THE mosquitoes are governed altogether
by sound" said the queer little man as he put
them back into their box. 'Tbelieve that all
things that have consciousness. that can feel
pain and pleasure, are able to communicate
their feelings one TO the other. By n careful
observation ! have found what affects mus
quitoes. In n dim, vague way they under
stand each other. When you learn what
sounds produce certain impressions, the secret
Of governing them or training them is out.
That was a battle You saw n moment ago.
None OF them were hurt. It took me nearly
two years to learn them to do this. These
Rre all females. BY the way, may be you
lid not know that the female mosquitoes are
the blood-suckers, and that the males never
bother yeu at night
~ have n little band of FIVE that I hatched
In ~ that dance tolerable well.n He again
lifted the box and uttered a low coaring
whistle.
In a moment five large insects came Gyign
up. He held out his hand, apd after they
had alighted, began to whistle one Of Strauss
waltzes. The mosquitoes began to circle
about, keeping tolernbly good time to the
music. After he had put them back In tho
box he turned TO the reporter and said: MY
III