Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-04-18
Flies and Mosquitoes.
ONLY THE FEMALES OF THE LATTER 1NsEr-
STING.

ONLY THE FEMALES OF THE LATTER INSECT
STING.
From the New York Times, April 5th
Driving rain did not prevent large attend
ance yesterday at Prof. Bickmore's lecture to
the public school teachers on flies and mosoui-
toes in the American Museum of Natural H is
tory. For an hour and a half the audience paid
the closest attention to the professors interest
ing and graphic talk and the pictures that he
was illustrating on the screen. The professor
said that the typical insect leg was not COM
posed of an indefinite number of joints, but
usually two short joints, and the femur, tibia
and arm. A number of flies were projected on
insects on the wing as a hawk would attack a
pigeon, tearing them to pieces and sucking out
the juices OF the unfortunate victims. The
longlegged fly known as the mosquito got its
name from Spanish word meaning little fiy
The female laid a series of eggs, long pointed
like rifle cartridges and placed parallel to each
other.
An audible smile went around the lecture
room when the professor calmly observed that
dicted to biting, and he suggested that it
seemed that all the mosquitoes were of that
gender. The males quietly, kept aioof on
preyed on any unfortunate vertebr@ they
could hnd. The mosquitoes mode of operations
was to drive into her victim horny maxille
making long ragged blade. Drawn through
the skin the two parts together made sort of
tube. Evidently a poisonous fluid was left in
the skin after the hep unetufe was made because
duce the swelling, sometimes quite serious.
caused by MOSQUITOES bite: In some of the
a series of long, soft, flexible hairs. "And SO
even in pests Rhdilosophicay observed the
that out in Siberia many nseA9 @os srahnss
were found, but the birds went north
to nest ON account, of the insect life
through the swarms of mosquitoes. They rose
up in strata like a mist. When an animal died
in the summer time the flies scented the battle
from afar. They Matched eggs on the body.
which afterward changed apparently into
grains of wheat and then into perfect insects.
level of the sea to the tops of the highest noun
tains, and there were about $50, 900 varieties
The house fly laid her eggs in damp places,
stances which the larva could appropriate. The
larva was not the cause of decay, but on the
contrary removed the material that produced
decay. There was pest that troubled the OK
as it buzzed around the beast The female had
a lance-like tube, and thrusting it through the
larger than the parent itself. % 1'p0'''eo was
How does fly fy9 asked the professor. This
was not easy to make out While the wing was
lateral motion. The wings did not beat back
and forth In one plane, but made, as it were a
figure 8. The wings of q fly vibrated $50 times
power. If caught fast fly would keep buzzine
for long time before It stopped to rest with
this S-hKe movement. Inc eyes of a fly had
lance around. When magnified they showed a
series of facets, which were the lenses. These
facets combined produced sight. A fly of Sc
however, confined to a limited area TO pass
through q swarm Of them was deadly to horses
and oxen, but not to sucking calves They did
not affect mankind. Livingstone, the explorer,
spoke of one occasion when it was certain that
only twenty or thirty Of these flies appeared
and yet they caused the death of q large mum.
Der of cattle. The effect of their bites on the
beasts would be first loss Of appetite and fur,
and then death from hamilton. The southern
and central portions Of Africa would be quite
accessible were 1t not for this pest It was a
question how these insects could be DESTROYED