Evening star., 1939-02-26
By JESSIE FAINT EVANS.


Probably unsurpassed in his field
is Hashime Murayama, staff artist
of the National Geographic Society
for the past II years.
Famous for his color illustrations
of geological life histories, this mod
est, middle-aged Japanese artist is
now engaged in what is believed to
be pioneer undertaking. He is
portraying for future publication the
pictorial biography of a mosquito
from an egg to an adult step by
step, from his observations through
a microscope.
Art" he quotes. sis the express
sion of feeling without reason, sci
ence is the expression of reason
without feeling. Mine" he adds
quite simply, lis the task of depict
ing scientific facts, so that they
shall have both human and artistic
interest"
Mr.. Murayama's biographical
studies of the Culex quinqeufaciatus
as this mosquito is known to the
scientific world, began as sort of
New Year challenge with the ar
rival at the Geographic Society OF
what were officially designated as
artists supplies" These consisted
of an airmail shipment from the
Orlando. Fla, laboratory of the Bu-
reau of Entomology and Plant
Quarantine of the Agriculture De-
partment of some 5000 mosquito
eggs. Shipped in two small pill
boxes sealed in an ordinary en-
velope, the postage cost of their
journey was exactly 6 cents.
The pill boxes held "rafts" OF
clumps of eggs, brownish purple in
color, about the size of a grain of
wheat. Each of these masses con-
tanned 100 to 400 eggs.
Three Different Environments.
BY way of preparing this ma
terial for the enactment of it's life
history, Mr.. Murayama put one
part in jar of tap water another
in distilled water and the third part
he placed in melted snow water
For their sustenance he crumbled a
bit of yeast cake in each container
The snow water mosquito infants
developed the fastest and seemed to
be the sturdiest. With them under
his microscope. Mr.. Murayama was
started on the first illustrated
biography of this pest.
Full growth under Mr.. Murayama s
nursery conditions was attained ir
three weeks. In the summertime
it would normally have taken about
10 days.
With his dissecting microscope
hand magnifying glass and a high
empower instrument for even more
detailed work, he has studied anc
made life portrait of hundreds o1
these evolutions, comparing then
for accuracy's sake with certain
mounted specimens from the Ma.
tional Museum.
OF particular interest are his stud.
les OF the many segments in the an.
tennae of mosquitoes and theil
whorl of microscopic hairs. as vel
as the six mouth parts of the fe.
male of the species. With them sh.
makes her bite" which really ism
a bite but jablike puncture.
1t is in their stage as "wigglers
that mosquito babies can be de.
stroyed by pouring a smear of kero.
sene over the surface of stagnan
pools on which they hang heat
down to breathe.
AS the larvae are developing int
pupae they are "thick-headed
transparent creatures, with out
lines similar to those of a shrimp,
as they taper to their tail flap ar
rangements. In this phase they art
very active, curling and uncurlint
themselves without recourse to food
Metamorphosis.
The climax moves with the trans
formation of a water creature init
an insect with wings, the process
under Mr.. Murayama's microscope