Dec, 1907.] Knab : Mosquitoes as Flower Visitors. 215 



MOSQUITOES AS FLOWER VISITORS. 



By Frederick Knab, 

 Washington, D. C. 



In discussions of the feeding habits of mosquitoes one often finds 

 the statement 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 statements are based upon actual observation. 

 During the past season I found a species of mosquito frequenting 

 flowers in large numbers. It was obvious from the behavior of these 

 mosquitoes that the habit is quite normal with them. Confident that 

 the habit, of mosquitoes, of visiting flowers could not have altogether 

 escaped observation I made a hasty canvas of the available literature 

 and brought together the following records of a more definite 

 character. 



Theobald states : "I have frequently seen Culicidse settled on Com- 

 positse, sucking the juices of the flowers, both males and females." ^ 

 According to Giles "they are frequently found on flowers, and 

 especially in England on the catkins of the willow." f Ficalbi found 

 the first male of his Culex albopunctatus upon a flower, sucking the 

 honey, and upon searching the woods he found numbers of the males 

 thus engaged upon flowers of the same kind. % A number of records 

 were traced through Knuth's Handbuch der Bliitenbiologie. Hermann 

 Miiller has observed the male of Culex pipiens sucking on the flowers 

 of Rhafnnus frangiila.^ He has observed, in his room, this same 

 species of mosquito effecting the fertilization of Lopezia coronata by 

 releasing the pollen and transmitting it to the stigma of an older 

 flower, II Burkill in observations on the flower-visitors of Mentha 

 aquatica, made at Scarborough between September 20 and October 7, 

 found an Anopheles species "• four times, seemingly sucking honey." ** 

 The sex is not indicated. 



* Theobald, F. V. : Monogr. Culicidte, Vol. I, 1901, p. 69. 



f Giles, G. M. : Handbook of Gnats or Mosquitoes, 2 ed., 1902, p. 114. 



X P'icalbi, E. : Venti specie di zanzare (Culicidie) italiane. Bull. Soc. Ent. 

 Ital., Vol. XXXI, 1899, pp. 107, 186. 



§ Miiller, H. : Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten, 1873, p. 153. 



IJZ. ..,p. 198. 

 ** Willis, J. C. & I. H. Burkill : Flowers and Insects in Great Britain, Pt. I, 

 Annals of Botany, Vol. IX, 1895, p. 256. 



