Ill 



Tlte Common Mosquitoes of tJte Genus Culex 



CULEX is an old g-eniis named by Linnajus in 1735, 

 which for a long- time comprised all the mosqui- 

 toes. But other genera have been erected, and now 

 the mosquitoes are included in a family known as the Cu- 

 licidae, which comprises several genera and very many 

 species. Culex, however, is the typical genus, and in- 

 cludes the commoner, most abundant, and most wide- 

 spread kinds of mosquitoes. AVe have at least twelve 

 species in the United States, and probably more than 

 two hundred species exist in different parts of the world. 

 The genus has no geographic limitation, and its species 

 are found in the Arctic regions as well as in the tropics. 

 Not only has the genus itself apparently no territorial re- 

 strictions, but the individual species are many of them 

 wides^Dread. There are a half dozen or more which may 

 be found practically everywhere in the United States. 

 There are others which extend from Cuba to Alaska. A 

 few others are more restricted. The life history of the 

 common Euro])ean Culex, known as Cnlex j^qy'iens, was 

 studic'd and described very accurately as long ago as 1691, 

 by Bonanni, in his " Micrographia Curiosa," i)ul)lished at 

 Rome that year, and I am not sure that mosquito biology 



66 



