On account of the importance of the group in this country and the desirability of the student being able to determine material in various stages, we show in the accompanying figures the characters most used in classification. The larvæ (fig. 73) are elongate, with the head and thorax sharply distinct. The larval antennæ are prominent, consisting of a single cylindrical and sometimes curved segment. The outer third is often narrower and bears at its base a fan-shaped tuft of hairs, the arrangement and abundance of which is of systematic importance. About the mouth are the so-called rotary mouth brushes, dense masses of long hairs borne by the labrum and having the function of sweeping food into the mouth. The form and arrangement of thoracic, abdominal, and anal tufts of hair vary in different species and present characteristics of value. On either side of the eighth abdominal segment is a patch of scales varying greatly in arrangement and number and of much value in separating species. Respiration is by means of tracheæ which open at the apex of the so-called anal siphon, when it is present. In addition, there are also one or two pairs of tracheal gills which vary much in appearance in different species. On the ventral side of the anal siphon is a double row of flattened, toothed spines whose number and shape are likewise of some value in separating species. They constitute the comb or pecten. [Illustration: 73. Culex larva showing details of external structure.] The pupa (fig. 139, b) unlike that of most insects, is active, though it takes no food. The head and thorax are not distinctly separated, but the slender flexible abdomen in sharply marked off. The antennæ, mouth-parts, legs, and wings of the future adult are now external, but enclosed in chitinous cases. On the upper surface, near the base of the wings are two trumpets, or breathing tubes, for the pupal spiracles are towards the anterior end instead of at the caudal end, as in the larva. At the tip of the abdomen is a pair of large chitinous swimming paddles. As illustrative of the life cycle of a mosquito we shall discuss the development of a common house mosquito, _Culex pipiens_, often referred to in the Northern United States as the rain barrel mosquito. Its life cycle is often given as typical for the entire group, but, as we have already emphasized, no one species can serve this purpose.