ould a nest of hornets. Early in spring the larva (Fig.
62, A) of the mosquito may be found in pools and ditches. It remains at
the bottom feeding upon decaying matter (thus acting as a scavenger, and
in this state doing great benefit in clearing swamps of miasms), until
it rises to the surface for air, which it inhales through a single
respiratory tube (_c_) situated near the tail. When about to transform
into the pupa state, it contracts and enlarges anteriorly near the
middle, the larval skin is thrown off, and the insect appears in quite a
different form (Fig. 62, a). The head and thorax are massed together,
the rudiments of the mouth parts and of the wings and legs being folded
upon the breast, while there are two breathing tubes (_d_) situated upon
the back instead of the tail, which ends in two broad paddles (_a_); so
that it comes to the surface, head foremost instead of tail first, a
position according better with its increased age and experience in pond
life. In a few days the pupa skin is cast; the insect, availing itself
of its old habiliments as a raft upon which to float while its body is
drying, grows lighter, and its wings expand for its marriage flight. The
males are beautiful, both physically and morally, as they do not bite;
their manners are more retiring than those of their stronger minded
partners, as they rarely enter our dwellings, and live unnoticed in the
woods. They may be easily distinguished from the females by their long
maxillary palpi, and their thick, bushy, feathered antennae. The female
lays her elongated, oval eggs in a boat-shaped mass, which floats on the
water. A mosquito lives three or four weeks in the water before changing
to the adult or winged stage. How many days they live in the latter
state we do not know.

[Illustration: 62. Larva and Pupa of the Mosquito.]

Our readers will understand, then, that all flies, like our mosquito for
example, grow while in the larva and pupa state, _and after they acquire
wings do not grow_, so that the small midges are not young mosquitoes,
but the adult winged forms of an entirely different species and genus of
fly; and the myriads of small flies, commonly supposed to be the young
of larger flies, are adult forms belonging to different species of
different genera, and perhaps of different families of the suborder of
Diptera. The typical species of the genus Culex, to which the mosquito
belongs, is Culex pipiens, described by Linnaeus, and th