FOOD OF AEDES CALOPUS 259 



The domesticity of this mosquito will be apparent from the detailed account 

 of habits which follows. Nearly always it is found in houses or in their im- 

 mediate vicinity. Durham, at Para and at Manaos, on the Amazon, found it a 

 house mosquito. He says of it : " Never seen out in forest away from houses, 

 or in isolated huts situated away in forest. Not seen at Santa Anna, some 

 twenty-five miles north of Para, or Fazenda Natal, in Marajo." 



However, upon a number of occasions it has been found established at a dis- 

 tance from habitations. The Brazilian observers at Eio de Janeiro have paid 

 special attention to this question and Peryassii records its occurrence in the 

 forest at a distance of 500 meters from the nearest habitation. In the vicinity 

 of Eio de Janeiro both males and females of calopus were found in the woods, 

 away from houses, at Gavea, Corcovado, Paineiras, Furnas da Tijuca, Sylvestre, 

 and in some woods near Lagoinha. Once the larvas were found in a pool at 

 Furnas da Tijuca, at a great distance from habitations, and on another occasion 

 at 100 meters from the Hotel do Sylvestre which is situated in an uninhabited 

 region. Siich occurrences must nevertheless be considered rare, even under the 

 most favorable circumstances, such as those observed about Rio de Janeiro un- 

 doubtedly were. 



The only other instance known to us in which calopus has been found at a 

 distance from human habitation, except on trains, ships and other conveyances, 

 is told by Mr, Herbert S. Barber, of the Bureau of Entomology. On July 30, 

 1904, while maldng a trip along the supposed northern boundary of the distribu- 

 tion of the yellow-fever mosquito, after dinner at Helena, Arkansas, he took a 

 walk into the wooded hills in the suburbs, a hundred feet above the river. Rather 

 more than a quarter of a mile after leaving the last house, in a sunny opening 

 in the woods, he was kneeling down and sifting the earth for small insects, when 

 a single female of calopus alighted on his hand and pierced his skin. He cap- 

 tured the specimen. He searched and could find no house within a quarter of a 

 mile, and there was no indication of any building having existed there before. 

 He himself is sure that the mosquito was there before he arrived. Could the 

 mosquito have flown this distance from the nearest house (there was no neigh- 

 boring breeding-place, so far as Mr. Barber could find) ? Mr. Barber thinks 

 there was no possibility that the insect had come out from the town Avith him, 

 although he was perfectly aware of the propensity of this species to hide under 

 folds of garments, such as coat lapels. 



The French investigators state that sleeping rooms are the preferred habitat 

 of calopus. They determined that this mosquito very rarely attempts to leave a 

 room and that it does so only when in search of a suitable place to deposit its eggs. 



FEEDING HABITS. 



The French commission found that both sexes normally frequent human 

 habitations and that they obtain the necessary food inside the house. The female 

 sucks blood when it is available, and, as will be shown further on, needs blood to 

 develop her eggs. In captivity the female has been kept alive a long time on a 

 diet of honey or other sweet substances. Ficalbi makes the following statement 

 18 



