The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-12
EntOmOIogist FuIlaway
Lectures on Mosquitoes

There was an audience that packed
the reading room Of Davies Memoria
Hall, st. Andrews Cathedral grounds
last night which listened with close at
tention to an exceedingly lucid lee
ture on mosquitoes by d. T. Fullaway
entomologist of Hawaii Experiment
Station.
After the lecture Mr.. Fullaway ex
planned pictures giving the life cycles
of the three species OF mosquito alone
found in Hawaii out of more than a
thousand species known to entomol
ogists, also answering questions that
came thick and fast from several OF
those present Rev Frank A. Saylor
operated the lantern Magnifed rec
ords of the house fly and the flea were
also exhibited
/ Joseph o. Emerson interested the
/ lecturer as much as anyone by making
the daylight mosquito out as more OF
kamaaina than the records would
show. Away back about 1852 he heard
of natives at Lahaina reporting a new
/ fly that had arrived, being first per.
ceived emerging from the bunghole OF
a vessels water cask. He well recol-
lected hearing it said that, while they
had one kind of mosquito working by
day and another by night, there was
half an hour in the evening when both
kinds were busy.
James Wakefield presided. Rev.
Canon Ault moved a vote of thanks
to Mr. Fullaway, which passed with
the inclusion of Mr. Saylor for his LIANT
ern work Bishop Restarick, r. Give
Davies, General John H. Soper, Byron
O. Clark, Prof Isaac NJ. Cox, AleXan.
der Pratt and many other professional
and business men were in the audi.
ence. Mr.. Tullaways lecture is here
with printed in full:
MOSQUITOES.
NJ Chairman and Gentlemen: 1t is
very gratifying to see some interest
shown in the biology of the mosquito.
While these little flies are very com
mon pest and force their attentions
upon us daily, causing annoyance by
their buzz and bite and endangerng
our lives by their role in the disscmi-
nation of infective diseases, the orGi-
nary man does not care much about
the tedious details of their develop
ment and habits. | am glad 70 note
an exception tonight and on my TART
will try to make the subjec, as little
tedious as possible.
Species Exceed Thousands.
7 may as well say at the outset that
our knowledge of the mosquitoes IS
still in the making We do not know
it all yet; at the same time we know
vastly more today than we did zen
or fifteen years ago A few facts ard
figures will illustrate this. In 1901,
the known species numbered in the
neighborhoOd of l75; today the num-
Der exceeds a thousand. Previously
the life history of only one or two spe-
cies was known; today there is an
enormous accumulation of biological
information. This rapid rise in our
knowledge of mosquitoes has been
due almost entirely to the establish
ment by conclusive proofs of the fact
that mosquitoes act as an intermedi-
ate host for certain proto2oon and
other animal parasites which are the
causative agents of some very serious
infective diseases. This discovery
gave a wonderful stimulus to the study
of the group, which had previously
been very much neglected. The Brit
ish Foreign Office at the instance of
the Committee for the Investigation
of the Transmission of Malaria en-
listed the cooperation of practically
every official in the colonial service
bringing in an enormous mass of ma
terial from British possessions
throughout the world; in the United
States the Carnegie Institution voted
$25, 900 for the collection and study of
mosquitoes in America; and independ-
ent Investigations were made in a
great many different places, especial
ly in the tropics. These Investigations
not only contributed largely to the
systematic knowledge of mosquitoes
but brought to light many new and
interesting facts concerning their BIZ
ology, and today the group is consid-
cred to be rather thoroughly worked.
olarlne Misconceptions.
The prominence which the mosquito
has attained in the public eye has
made its biology more or less a mat
ter of common knowledge At the
same time, in the face of some glar-
ing misconceptions which have APP
peared IN print here, may be par
doned for recountng some Of the es-
sential features of their life. Mosqui-
toes are insects, and like most insects,
their life-cycle begins-or ends, just