146 



tion by Hatchett Jackson that on a warm sunny day in November they settled 

 on stems of periwinkle and wall flowers and, inserting their proboscides, were 

 apparently engaged in sucking (1907 p. 278). 



On the other hand we often find indications in literature which show that T. 

 annulata may be a very troublesome blood sucker. I especially refer to Theobald 

 (1907 p. 277) and to Prell (1919 p. 65) who says that in Spa he has found 

 females gorged with blood. 



According to Theobald the sting may be very troublesome; "cases have oc- 

 curred especially in women, where there have been four or five simultaneous punc- 

 tures, and the patient has felt so indisposed as to have to retire to bed with fever 

 ranging up to 101° F." These indications are in accordance with those of Eckstein 

 (1919 p. 63), Edwards (1912 p. 261) and Lang (1920 p. 101) who states that it 

 may become troublesome in mild weather in the winter. 



Last year, during my exploration of the cowstables, I found a great many speci- 

 mens of T. annulata, sifting on the ceiling and upon the walls together with A. 

 maculatus; they were very often gorged with blood. They were common more 

 especially in Aug. — Sept. Later on Mr. Kryger told me that he, too, had found 

 them extremely numerous in the stables in Jutland more especially on the east 

 coast; they were almost always blood-filled. He further maintained that he was 

 often stung by the mosquito, and that the sting was extremely painful. It seems 

 therefore that in our country nowadays T. annulata just as A. maculipennis is at- 

 tracted by the stables and mainly sucks blood from cattle. 



The bloodsucking habits of C. pipiens seem to be of a very remarkable kind. 

 From a popular point of view it is often believed of the mosquito plague that, at 

 all events in Europe, it is mainly due to C. pipiens. My own experience, especially 

 in Denmark, and in recent years also that of other observers, especially in Ger- 

 many, is in contradiction to this supposition. 



During the last five years I have studied C. pipiens and its behaviour in my 

 own cellar in winter, when it was brought up into my rooms with the peat, fur- 

 ther in May out of doors, when it appeared there after leaving the hibernating 

 localities, in the breeding places in the stables etc. During the whole summer and late 

 autumn not a single C. pipiens has done me the honour to puncture my skin. As 

 mentioned later on, I have never found a blood-filled mosquito in the cellars, and 

 the few I have seen I have caught on evenings in spring and summer months. 

 Only during winter, when the mosquitoes arrived in the rooms, have I been the 

 object of their attacks; when I have heard that people have been attacked in their 

 rooms by mosquitoes in winter, and I have been able to examine them, it has al- 

 most always been shown that the trouble was caused by C. pipiens. 



Studying the literature, also there we find very few trustworthy indications 

 with regard to the trouble caused by this very species. Theobald (1901 p. 135) 

 observes that it "is known to bite some years with considerable severity". Ho- 

 ward, Dyar and Knab (1912 p. 106) state that even C. pipiens is among those 



