THE SWARMING OF ANOPHELINE MOSQUITOES 



By Charles S. Banks 

 Professor of Entomology, University of the Philippines 



The swarming of Culicidse has been reported from all parts 

 of the world where these insects are found. Almost every rec- 

 ord of such swarming has to do with members of the subfamily 

 Culicinae, as far as it is possible to ascertain. W. W. Smith 

 says 2 that in New Zealand "a train passed through a wall of 

 mosquitoes three quarters of a mile in length, twenty feet high 

 and eighteen inches thick" and that this swarm was composed 

 of Culex (Ura?iot tenia) argyropus Walk. J. W. Douglas re- 

 ports 3 a similar occurrence in London, where for ten days 

 hordes of members of the genus Culex swarmed over the neigh- 

 borhood and appeared like smoke when it issues from chimneys. 

 They rose in the air for 10 meters and continually danced up 

 and down in the twilight stillness. Holiday * records a like 

 phenomenon in which Culicada nemorosa Meig. (synonym Culex 

 detritus) was the species. F. V. Theobald 5 gives an account 

 of Culex pipiens L. on the Downs, near Wye, England, "dancing 

 in little clouds where they were sheltered from the wind." 

 Romolo Gessi Pascha 6 speaks of myriads of mosquitoes, which 

 obscured the air at Meshra-el-Rek. 



Accounts similar to these have come from every Arctic ex- 

 plorer; and persons who have returned from Juneau, Nome, 

 and Skagway, as well as other parts of Alaska, and from northern 

 Siberia including Kamchatka Peninsula, even north of the 

 Arctic Circle, mention the immense swarms of mosquitoes that 

 are to be encountered. It would seem from the reports that 

 many of the swarms there were made up largely of females, 

 which accords with my observations in northern New York in 

 years gone by. The consensus seems to be that the swarms 



1 From the entomological laboratory, College of Agriculture, University 

 of the Philippines, Los Bafios. 

 'Ent. Mo. Mag. (1890) 321. 



3 Ibid. (1895) 239. 



4 The Entomologist 1 (1883) 151. 



'Monograph of the Culicidse of the World 1 (1901) 73. 

 'Seven Years in the Soudan (1892) 47. 



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