110 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



splendens de Meijere, in Java, which obtains its food by causing a certain ant, 

 Cremastog aster difformis Smith, to disgorge the liquid in its crop. This mos- 

 quito habitually sits upon the ant-streets on the tree trunks to waylay the ants. 

 The observer writes as follows : 



" They sit mostly immediately upon the ant-streets and constantly rock them- 

 selves back and forth, from left to right and the reverse. 



" When now an ant comes down the tree and, so to speak, runs between the 

 legs of the mosquito, she is at once held up by the latter by rapidly tapping the 

 ant with fore legs and palpi, upon the head and vertex. Most of the ants then 

 immediately stand still, press the body firmly against the tree, fold the abdomen 

 towards the front and open the mandibles wide, at the same time drawing back 

 the antennse. The mosquito at once ceases its rocking movements and brings 

 the wings into rapid vibrations. 



" While the ant now vomits a drop of food-liquid the mosquito licks it up with 

 great haste, upon which the ant goes on its way. The mosquito again begins to 

 rock itself back and forth until another ant allows itself to be robbed by the 

 waylayer. 



" However, not all ants permit themselves to be robbed and many hurry 

 rapidly upon their way without paying toll. The mosquito then often attempts 

 to bring the escaping ant to a standstill by flying down the tree in front of the 

 ant, at the same time constantly touching it with its fore legs and palpi. 

 Thereby she often accomplishes her object." 



The mosquitoes of the genus Deinocerites, which breed in crab-holes along 

 the coast, are not blood-suckers. There are several species of Ciilex which are 

 exclusively crab-hole breeders and none of these appear to suck blood. We have 

 specimens of Culex extricator from Panama in which the abdomen is distended 

 by a whitish substance, showing that they had fed on something else than 

 vertebrate blood. 



The little pitcher-plant mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, does not suck blood. 

 Neither does Culex territans, a very common species throughout the summer in 

 eastern North America. Culex melanurus apparently does not bite. These 

 species probably obtain nourishment from plants in some form or other. Ob- 

 servations on the habits of such species are yet to be made. 



Ficalbi discovered a species in Italy which punctures plants and feeds upon 

 their juices and which he therefore gave the name Culex phytophagus. In speci- 

 mens that had fed, the distended abdomen distinctly showed the green color of 

 the chlorophyll within. Theobald cites an observation by Dr. W. Hatchett Jack- 

 son that Culiseta annulatus apparently sometimes sucks plant juices. . . . 

 " on a M^arm sunny day in November the 5's settled on the stems of periwinkle 

 and wall-flowers and inserting their proboscides, apparently engaged in sucking." 



The whole question of the feeding of mosquitoes upon plants has been rather 

 carefully gone over by one of us (Knab) in an article entitled " Mosquitoes as 

 Flower Visitors," published in the Journal of the New York Entomological 

 Society, Volume XV, December, 1907, pages 215-219. This article also in- 

 cludes certain original observations, and for convenience we reproduce it in full : 



" In discussions of the feeding habits of mosquitoes one often finds the state- 

 ment that mosquitoes suck the juices of plants and visit flowers to obtain honey. 

 Generally, however, no details are given that would convince one that these 



