29 



from a general point of view, appears to exhaust the subject, when, six 

 months ago, I recurred to that valuable source in search of data for the 

 study which I had undertaken, I could not obtain the ones which 1 mosl 

 needed. I was consequently obliged not only to go over all the data given by 

 Réaumur, in order to ascertain whether they were also applicable to the Cu- 

 ban mosquitoes, but to investigate other details about which neither Reau- 

 mur nor any other Naturalist had reason to be particularly interested. *) 



Let us first recall the geographical distribution of mosquitoes. They 

 may be said, in general terms, to exist everywhere, except at great altitudes 

 above the sea-level. Many believe that the dipterous insect with which we 

 are concerned, the genus ''Culex", constitutes a special torment of the trop- 

 ical regions, while in reality it is found in all latitudes. In the polar 

 regions, the Laplanders, just as the inhabitants of the equinoctial regions 

 of America, are prevented from taking their meals and from lying down 

 to sleep within their huts, unless they surround themselves with an atmos- 

 phere of smoke in order to escape those pests. In the open, those insects 

 will fly into their mouths and nostrils, and, notwithstanding the hardening 

 of their skin during the previous winters, they find it necessary to use veils 

 steeped in fetid grease and to anoint their bodies with cream or lard as 

 a protection against mosquitoes. In Canada, in Russia, in England, in 

 France, in Spain, all over Europe, in Siberia, China, the United States, 

 in North and South America, mosquitoes abound. In Central Africa, a 

 German explorer, Dr. Schweinfurst, was tormented by a "spotty-legged" 

 species whose description might agree with that of the Cuban C. mosquito ; 

 and perhaps also the species observed in Batavia by Arnold, as stated by 

 Dr. Kirby, who considers it as a non-deseript variety, not unlike the C. 

 annulatus, but without any spots on its wings. 



1) The truth of these remarks was well exemplified iu the case of the mos- 

 quito which I had begun to investigate in December 1880, as may be seen from 

 the following notes copied from a slip of paper upon which I had jotted down all 

 the information that I obtained from the accomplished and well-known Cuban 

 Naturalist D. Felipe Poey. 



Havana, January 10, 1881, Culex mosquito, Kobiueau Desvoidy, Cuban mos 

 quito. D. Felipe Poey took with him from Cuba to Paris some Cuban mosquitoes 

 in 1817 or 1820, and they were there classified by Robineau Desvoidy. 



D. Felipe Poey says that, in the same manner as happens with other insects, 

 the male dies after copulation, and the female after laying its eggs. That, in other 

 respects, generation is accomplished under the same conditions as have been described 

 regarding other species. 



That the eggs of the Cuban mosquito, deposited upon the water, are black. 



That in his opinion, if some mosquitoes do live as long as eight days, it must 

 be because some accident has prevented the union of the male with the female. 



The Culex annulatus has white rings upon its legs but its body is black; the 

 C, mosquito, on the contrary (?), has silvery white plaques upon the last 5 articu- 

 lations of its 3d pair of legs, 2 ill-defined ones upon the second pair, and two also on 

 the other pair. The abdomen is white underneath. The thorax, he is informed, 

 presents a central longitudinal line. 



