GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 231

tarpon (Tarpon Atlanticus), which has little food value but is caught merely for sport by tourists. Important marine food
fishes in central -Florida witets are the mullet, red snapper, ponpano and Spanish mackerel.*
 There seem to be no statistics available by which the fishing business of our area can be separated from that of the rest of the State.
 Sharks' teeth are common in the pebble phosphate and in some other formations.
 Insects. In most parts of the world, especially in warm climates, there are more species of insects than plants, so that there must be at least a few thousand in central Florida.t A reasonably complete list of them would take years to prepare and would have little value for the general reader, but a few of the troublesome ones must be mentioned. Th-se of greatest popular interest are probably the mosquitoes-, but to write about mosquitoes without being backed by statistics is to risk offending some local interests, so that the subject must be handled cautiously.
 There are several species of mosquitoes present in- some parts of our area throughout the frostless season, but probably no more individuals than in an equal area in New Jersey or Alaska. Natural conditions are not especially favorable for them in central Florida except in salt marshes, for the lime-sink region has very little water, and the lakes and streams in other regions are usually well stocked with fish that eat all the mosquito larvae within reach. Most of our mosquitoes come from artificial or accidental breeding places that could be eliminated, such as water barrels and tin cans, and the malaria-carrying species are decidedly in the minority, probably on account of the absence of muddy water which they seem to prefer. Consequently there is much less malaria in

 *See Everman & Bean, Indian River and its fishes. U. S. Senate Doc. 46. 54th Cong., 2d Session. Jan. 1897. Also in Rep. U. S. Fish Comm. 1896:227-262 (with 36 plates). 1898.
 tThere are caid to be important papers on Florida beetles by E. A. Schwarz in Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 17:353-469, 1878, and in Entomologia Anericana 4:165-175, 1888. In recent years J. A. G. Rehn and Morgan Hebard have published taxonomic papers on some of our other insects in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.


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