front of them he has a pair of cute little horns or feelers. While
the baby mosquito is brought up in the water, he is an air-breather
and comes to the top to breathe as do frogs and musk-rats and many
other water creatures of a higher order.

Like most babies the mosquito larva believes that his mission is to
eat as much as he can and grow up very fast. This he does, and if
the weather is warm and the food abundant, he soon outgrows his
skin. He proceeds to grow a new skin underneath the old one, and
when he finds himself protected, he bursts out of his old clothes
and comes out in a spring suit. This molting process occurs several
times within a week or two, but the last time he takes on another
form. He is then called a pupa, and is in a strange transition
period during which he does not eat. He now slowly takes on the form
of a true mosquito within his pupal skin or shell.

After two or three days, or perhaps five or six, if conditions are
not altogether favorable, he feels a great longing within him to
rise to something higher. His tiny shell is floating upon the water
with his now winged body closely packed within. The skin begins to
split along the back and the true baby mosquito starts to work
himself out. It is a strenuous task for him and consumes many
minutes.

At last he appears and sits dazed and exhausted, floating on his old
skin as on a little boat, and slowly working his new wings in the
sunlight, as if to try them out before essaying flight. It is a
moment of great peril. A passing ripple may swamp his tiny craft and
shipwreck him to become the prey of any passing fish or vagrant
frog. A swallow sweeping close to the water's surface may gobble him