Page:Mosquitoes, gnats, craneflies, midges and flies of the northern states (IA mosquitoesgnatsc00knobe).pdf/5

 INTRODUCTION. The mosquitos.

gnats,

only two wings (a few wingless excepted)

end of each called the balancers sucking or lapping, never





in

place of hind wings,

mostly covered by

a

Their food

is

always

tiiey

when

scale

though often enclosed

for I'iting,

their tongues enclosed in a soft trunk.

Diptcra of the

fleas constitute the order

and

flies, ticks,

in

at

full

grown transform

In 1S33, Dr. T.

10,000 are

Many The as the

known

W.

to

to exist, a

similar

in

They

in their

in the

lay their

their

own

eggs inthe water, on

larva-, footless

maggots

fruit or

The

live.

dried skin, though some times naked.

Now over

Massachusetts.

number may be expected

Their mouth parts are formed for

sharp horny needles for piercing; some have

liquid.

pupa, mostly enclosed

Harris'counted 247 kinds

They have

have a minute hair with a knob on the

rest.

on various growing or decaying vegetable or animal matter, on which

maggots when

class Insecta.

2500 are named, and as

in

Europe,

United States.

kinds appear in countless swarms and as a veritable plague, but some are useful.

order Diptcra has been divided into sub-orders by the

pupa

is

(aiifci/iiic) is

rarelv

way

the

fly

opens the pupa when leaving

met with, the old way of dividing the order by the various number

more convenient.

The

it



but

of joints in their feeleis

sub-orders are divided into families by the variations of the veins in their

wings.

(3)