Insect Pests of House and Garden. 



663 



The common household mosquitoes hibernate in the adult or winged 

 form; sometimes hundreds of them find suitable hibernating quarters 

 in an overturned wash-tub in the cellar. The eggs of the common 

 Culex mosquitoes are laid on end in raft-shaped masses, which float 

 on the surface of the water (Fig. 26, d), while those of Anopheles are 

 laid singly on their sides (Fig. 27, c). Most persons are famiHar with 

 mosquito larvae or " wigglers " which wriggle about in the water, 

 returning at frequent intervals to the surface to breathe, and when at 

 the surface hanging with simply the tip of the tail, which is the breath- 

 ing tube, extruding, the rest 

 of the body being held below 

 the surface (Fig. 26, g). The 

 " wigglers " eat minute par- 

 ticles of decaying vegetable 

 matter and living algae in the 

 water; some of the larger 

 kinds are carnivorous and eat 

 their smaller relatives. The 

 malarial " wigglers " rest most 

 of the time at the surface 

 with their body parallel to the 

 surface, and not hanging down 

 as does the Culex " wiggler." 

 (Compare Figs. 26, g, and 

 27, e.) The eggs may hatch 

 the same day they are laid, 

 and the " wigglers " may get 

 their full growth (Fig. 27, /) 

 in a week, when they trans- 

 form to the active, large- 

 headed pupae, shown at h in 



Fig. 26. The pupal state may last only one day, so that an entire 

 generation of mosquitoes in summer time may be completed in ten 

 days. Most of the mosquitoes which come into houses, except near 

 the salt-marsh lands along the seashore, are doubtless developed 

 in water not more than two or three hundred yards away. The salt- 

 marsh mosquitoes often migrate several miles, and sometimes other 

 forms may be carried by steady, light winds for considerable distances. 

 So far as the farmer's wife is concerned, the mosquito problem is a very 

 local one. 



Fig. 27 Life-story of an Anopheles mosquito 

 — (a) male; (b) antenna of fe^nale; (c) eggs; 

 (d) larva of "wiggler"; (e) larva in feeding 

 position at surface; (f) pupa; all enlarged. — 

 {Adapted from Howard). 



