12 MO^SQUITOKS 



pimcture to a healthy individTiah The best we can do, 

 theu, is to say tliat the adult mosquitoes live iudetiiiitely 

 — certainly, under favorable circumstances, even in sum- 

 mer, for several weeks — and that they may bite an indef- 

 inite number of times. 



Observations by Fermi and Lumbao on Ciilcv pipiois in 

 Italy led them to believe that this mosquito, after emerg- 

 ing:, devotes itself to bloodsucking- and similar jileasant 

 occupations, but that e^g-layin.u' only takes place after 

 from fifteen to twenty days, and that after eg-gf-layinii- tlie 

 females die. This observation may be jierfectly correct, 

 but it is contrary to the customary rule with insects, since 

 it is almost a law that after the issuins: of the adults the 

 first and main business of life is the luTpetnation of the 

 species. 



Transformations of INIosquitoes Artificially Hastened. 



In thci summer of IDUO, while engaf^^ed in making- experi- 

 ments as to the insecticidal effect of creosote-oil poured 

 upon the surface of water in breeding- -jars containing- 

 mosquito larva), I made what seems to me to be a most 

 interesting observation. In one battery jar containing 

 three quarts of water, eighty nearly full grown larv;e of 

 CUih'.r sfimnJiinii and (\ prrfurlxins were i)l:u'ed, and one- 

 fourth of an ounce of creosote-oil of a si>ecific g-ra vity 1.035 

 at G0° F. was poured. This was jar No. 1. In another 

 jar were two quarts of water in which were placed 150 

 larva? of the same species, all full grown or nearly so. 

 Upon this water, three-sixteenths of an ounce of a some- 



