136 GNATS OR MOSQUITOES — CHAPTER VII 



the tank, which was indeed filled periodically from the well 

 — and so fluctuated more from this cause than it could do 

 from any shower, — so that the occurrence has evidently no 

 connection with the rain per se. Brought into the house, 

 these pupae gave issue to their imagines, but I cannot say if 

 this is also the case with those in the open — at any rate, 

 none appeared in the bungalow. 



Celli's observation may, however, be considered to prac- 

 tically settle the question, as it is little likely that the larvae 

 are unable to survive the mild cold weather of Upper India, 

 if they can do so in the comparatively severe winter of Italy, 

 and hence it may be accepted that in subtropical and the 

 warmer parts of temperate climates, the survival of larvae 

 is one method whereby the permanence of the species is 

 secured, not only in Anopheles, but also in other gnats, as 

 the same thing was undoubtedly the case with both C. 

 fatigans, Wied., and G. impellens, Walk., although, in their 

 case, the imagines were more or less in evidence through the 

 entire period, and were, I believe, even breeding in a Insur- 

 able fashion whenever the weather turned a trifle warmer. 



During the short Danish summer, Meinert finds that 

 Anopheles can find time for the rearing of but a couple of 

 broods, and it is natural that in a limited period such as 

 this, there should be more or less definite seasons of appear- 

 ance of larvae, and that the flying insects should appear in 

 periodical swarms ; but in Italy the process goes on more or 

 less irregularly throughout the much longer summer, and 

 the same is the case in Northern India. 



In Italy, Celli says that the hybernating larvae pupate 

 and turn into Mosquitoes in April, and the first genera- 

 tions of new larvffi are found in the first half of May. 

 With us, in Oudh, as we have seen, the new Mosquitoes put 

 in an earlier appearance, though they rarely can find many 

 opportunities to deposit their eggs till the advent of the 

 rains, as even their own winter quarters must usually be 

 dried up during the fierce heat of the months that intervene. 

 Just as the process commences earlieu with us, so it con- 

 tinues into the later months of the year, so that active 

 Anopheles Mosquitoes are to be met with till quite the end 



