KEMARKABLE EARLY WORK 23 



followed by later writers, frequently without credit, it is a curious fact that the 

 duration of the different stages as ascertained by him in Paris prior to 1738 

 shonld have been slavishly quoted in standard works as the duration of the stages 

 of practically all mosquitoes. Down to the publication of the life-history of 

 Culex pipiens in America by one of us in 1896, the data established by Eeaumur 

 in a different part of the world have been considered as applicable to all mos- 

 quitoes. The frequent references to Reaumur by Miall in his admirable book 

 entitled " The Natural History of Aquatic Insects," published in London in 

 1895, shows that even at the present time, and with the latest instruments and 

 methods of research, the French author practically remains standard. 



Most of the accounts of the early writers are based on material obtained from 

 rain-water barrels or like receptacles and consequently treat of the same species 

 of mosquito, the common Culex pipiens, or at most closely related forms. As 

 we have already mentioned, the transformation so faithfully described by 

 Wagner was not that of a mosquito but a Cliironomus, a midge quite similar in 

 general appearance. A Parisian naturalist, Joblot, in 1754, was the first to 

 describe the larva of Anopheles in " Observations d'histoire naturelle, faites 

 avee le microscope, sur un grand nombre d'Insectes." We have not seen this 

 work. 



The Swedish naturalist, De Geer, in the sixth volume of his "Memoires," 

 published in 1776, gives a chapter on mosquitoes with many interesting original 

 observations. He had already determined that the adults are by no means 

 restricted to a blood diet. He states that they visit various flowers to suck honey 

 and that he had found them particularly abundant on the blooms or catkins of 

 the willow. He gives an excellent description of the mating habits and of the 

 swarms of dancing males. He appears to have been the first to observe the 

 larvae of the species of Aedes which develop in the snow-water of early spring 

 and which are the predominating mosquitoes in northern countries. " It is in 

 the stagnant waters of ponds and swamps that the larvae of mosquitoes live, and 

 which swarm with them in the spring and summer ; but it is principally during 

 the first season, and in those in which the ice has melted, that one finds them in 

 abundance." Very naturally De Geer confused the species of Culex and Aedes, 

 and to complete his description of the life-history he drew upon Reaumur, re- 

 peating his statements for CuJex pipiens regarding the eggs, the succession of 

 generations and the mode of hibernation. The Aedes he appears principally to 

 have had under observation have but one brood and lay their eggs singly, facts 

 which have only been determined within the present century and which will be 

 found discussed in our general account of the habits of mosquitoes. 



The German miniature painter Kleemann published, in continuation of 

 Rosel's " Insecten-Belustigungen " a remarkable work under the title " Beytrage 

 zur N"atur- und Insecten-Geschichte." The work in some respects even exceeds 

 that of the famous Reaumur. Thus we find in the chapter on mosquitoes (vol. 

 1, 1792, pp. 125-148, plates 15 and 16) that, while he gives the observations of 

 Reaumur and others, he has verified them by observation, adding to them, and 

 in some cases criticizing them. His plates, particularly the one illustrating the 



