3I0SQUIT0ES IN GENERAL 17 



which the di-aiiiage of breediiio -places and kerosening- of 

 breedmg--pools has been carried on, hungry swarms of 

 mosquitoes nuiy tly in from a distance or may be carried 

 in by winds, to camp upon his grounds and in his house 

 and renew the annoyance of the irritating- punctures, and 

 perliaps even to seek out some neglected breeding-place 

 and start new generations. Therefore the question of the 

 length of flight is a most important one. In the summer 

 of 1900, Mr. W. J. Mathesou, living at Lloyd's Neck, Long 

 Island, a spot formerly infested by mosquitoes to an ex- 

 traordinary degree, by intelligent exterminative measures 

 succeeded in practically stopping' the breeding of mos- 

 quitoes upon this rather narrow neck of land. It resulted 

 that his house was mosquito-free until toward the end of 

 August. Then, after a gentle and continuous wind of 

 two or three days' duration, specimens of another kind of 

 mosquito put in their appearance in large numbers. 

 The explanation was obvious. These mosquitoes had 

 flown across a strip of water forming one of the entrances 

 from Long Island Sound to Oyster Bay, for a distance of 

 a mile or a little more, aided by the gentle and continu- 

 ous wind. 



This incident points out an important condition of 

 afi'airs. Ordinarily, it may safely be said that mosqui- 

 toes do not fly far. Where there is water favorable for 

 egg-laying in the immediate vicinity of the place of their 

 birth, and especially where there are warm-blooded ani- 

 mals upon which they may feed, they have no migratory 

 incentive. Then again, they are not strong fliers, as in- 

 sects go. It seems perfectly certain, from the evidence 



