Fig. 392.—Larva of Culex. Enlarged. (After Grassi.)
It is still unknown under what circumstances copulation takes place;[385] in any case, sooner or later the females are fecundated, and when the ova have become mature, and the season is not too far advanced, they seek a suitable place in which to deposit them.[386] These are larger or smaller, permanent or temporary, collections of standing water, pools, puddles, lakes, pits, water in rain-water barrels, basins, etc. Nevertheless, certain kinds prefer certain waters; thus Anopheles (claviger) maculipennis and several of the Culices seek stagnant water overgrown with swamp vegetation and decomposing vegetable matter; A. bifurcatus and certain Culices, clear water with some vegetation (such as fountains and the lakes in gardens and parks); Culex pipiens has a preference for rain-water barrels, even though the water be dirty and evil-smelling. [I have found the larvæ of Anopheles bifurcatus living in great numbers in ponds and lakes completely overgrown with floating water-weeds, and those of Culex pipiens in liquid manure.
Sexual Organs of the Mosquito.—The female has a pair of ovaries, opening into a single tube by the ovarian tubes; into the single tube opens a duct coming from the spermathecæ, and also a mucous gland. The spermathecæ store up the male cells. The male organs consist of two testes joined by ducts (vasa deferentia) to the ejaculatory duct formed by their union. Each vas deferens is joined by a short tube with the sac-like vesicula seminalis.—F. V. T.]
There is also a difference in the manner in which Culex and Anopheles deposit their ova. Culex deposits two to three hundred eggs in compact heaps that float on the water, and in which the eggs stand perpendicularly one next the other; whereas Anopheles maculipennis deposits only three or four up to twenty eggs, united in groups that float horizontally on the water; the eggs of A. bifurcatus, again, are arranged in star-like groups. The eggs are about 0·75 mm. in length, and assume a dark hue soon after being laid. The development only occupies a few days. The young larvæ grow rapidly, changing their integument several times; the larvæ also differ in the various genera, though they have a general resemblance (figs. 391 and 392).
The long legless larva has a flattened head, a fairly broad, rectangular, or trapeziform thorax, on which there are bristles, and an abdomen distinctly segmented, and on the segments of which there are also lateral bristles. The situation of the stigmata marks the difference between the two genera. Though in both genera the stigmata are at the posterior end and on the dorsal surface, they are in Anopheles close to the surface of the body; in Culex, however, they are on the free end of a long tube (siphon).
Fig. 393.—Pupa of Anopheles maculipennis, Meig. Enlarged. (After Grassi.)
The position of the larva in the water also differs. The larva of Anopheles lies almost horizontally beneath the surface of the water, the posterior border of the penultimate abdominal segment, upon which the stigmata are situated, being on the surface; whereas the larva of Culex hangs head downwards perpendicularly in the water, the point of the siphon only touching the surface.