Morris tribune., 1884-01-30
TRAINING MOSQUITOES.
A. Man Who IIas Devoted Twenty
Years to Their PecuHarities.
A Thing or Two for scientific Eel
lOws--. a MusGuitO battle
and u waltz.
louisville Courier-Journal.l

yellow faced, parcninenC-Sklnneu Htuie hi"h
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 brlght,
chirrupy little fellow, withal. He had on
musty black suit and a big collar He was in
the rear room of the second floor OF No. liz
East Market street. A strange little den OF q
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 quick,
careless motion toward the strangely tapes
tried walls. ''ThiS tarantula," picking up q
big, hairy, spider-like creature, Il found In
Texas, and had hard time catching him.
Amt he a fine specimen, though!" said the
little fellow, lovingly putting the frightful
creature back in its place 81 have all kinds
of insects, and have made them a life study.
1 have 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. l have so identified myself with their
habits that l feel sometimes as though L
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 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 81 am going to call it Twenty
Years Among Mosquitoes, by William T.
Drieffeld' and will tell these scientific fell
lows thing or two. have what call
hatchery over there in the corner, and
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 mosquito 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 a 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 musquitos you
say. Why, of course Aspasia-that's her
name-is three and three-quarters times as
large as the ordinary culex. 1 cross races
|
anopheles and the Mexican @des. I never
let the air of this room fall below 70 degrees
Fahrenheit, and find that with this tenn
perature the average life Of healthy mus
| quito is 5 years months and Is days l
have one old male who is 10 years old. His
proboscis is lseless-paralyzed, I 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 l caught him, not
one remains He couldn't even bite a child"
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. Arousing himself,
he said: "I have had some queer experiences
with them. I Go this to amuse myself, I
don't pay much attention to it, however,"
added the little man apologetically, as he
moved toward a long glass case toward one
end of the room which was almost entirely
hidden by black cloth. Z" I keep this over,
because the light is painful to them," con-
tinued the old man as he drew the curtain off
and revealed 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 peculiar hunming
sound with his mouth. So natural was it his
companion involuntarily brushed his haz-
through the air, as if to ward OFF willy and
enterprising mosquito. Presently out of the
box come 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 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 off at some little distance and
kept I'D O ng-continued and monotonous
singing
In a moment the old man began to hum in
higher key, and another swarm came out
of the box. He extended his other brown,
skinny hand, and after circling about they
alighted 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 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-shifting
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 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. 81 believe that ali
things that have consciousness, that can feel
pain and pleasure, are able to communicate
their feelings one to the other. By a careful
| observation have found what affects mus
quitoes. In a 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 battle you saw moment ago.
None of them were hurt. 1t took me nearly
two years to learn them to do this. These
are all females. By the way, may be you
did not know that the female mosquitoes are
the blood-suckers and that the males never
bother you at night.
1T have little band of FIVE that I Matched
in '79 that dance tolerable we'll" He again
lifted the box and uttered a low coaxing
whistle.
i In moment five large insects came fiyign
I'D. lie 1elQ QUIZ Ills nslQQ, ana lIUer UQey
had a1ighted, began to whistle one Of Strauss
waltzes. The mosquitoes began to circle
about, keeping tolerably good time to the
music After he had put them back in the
box he turned to the reporter and said: "My
book win give minute particulars of
how to train mosquitoes, and the
classes that are easiest to teach. Mel
gen, in his great treatise, divides the genus
culex into three, but have discovered, de-
scribed and named twenty-three separate and
distinct varieties. By crossing and mixing I
have myself created six varieties. The mus
quito is distinct from all things created in his
wonderful susceptibility to music. Even the
females, which are most ferocious never drive
their proboscis into flesh without accompany
ing all they do with their own music. They
are also very gentle, and are far less blood
thirsty than you would suppose. Indeed,
might keep you week. Come up again and
will show you how they fire little cannon
and draw chariot. Oh, no thanks at all,
! sir; am always glad to show Eiy insects