MOSQUITO BIOLOGY 67 



In the spring when warm weather has set in definitely these females 

 make their way out, seek food and lay the eggs as soon as they are 

 developed. No ovarian growth takes place in the hibernating specimens 

 while they remain in winter quarters. 



When the eggs are developed, which is rarely until late in May, they 

 are laid in the nearest suitable place, any place where there is water. 

 The female oviposits at night or in the very early morning and from the 

 description of an eye witness she rests on the surface with her legs ex- 

 tended, extrudes an egg from the ovipositor and places its broad end 

 down on the surface, resting against the hind tarsi. The next egg is set 

 against the one previously laid, and as it is coated with a sticky sub- 

 stance it adheres to it at once. And so egg after egg is placed until the 

 boat is completed. When laid the eggs are nearly white, but they usually 

 turn normally dark gray or brownish before morning. About 400 eggs 

 are laid by one female, in one boat if she is undisturbed, ill two or more 

 if she is interrupted. 



It usually requires only twenty-four hours or thereabout for the 

 larva to develop within the egg and hatch. Hatching usually takes place 

 at night, the little wriggler slipping out of the bottom of the egg di- 

 rectly into the water. 



When the adults emerge during the summer the males usually appear 

 a day or two before the females, and copulation takes place during 

 flight in the early evening soon after the females have emerged. The eggs 

 develop rapidly, and in a very few days after assuming the adult form 

 this summer mosquito is ready to oviposit. 



This Culex pipiens is not a migratory form and usually flies no 

 further than is necessary to secure food and a suitable place to lay eggs. 

 Blood food is not necessary for this species to mature ova. 



As to the bite it is not as painful as that of sollicitans or cantator, 

 but it is apt to be more lasting. It feels somewhat as if the lancets were 

 finer and more penetrating. Pipiens has the singing habit in an aggra- 

 vated form and will hover a long time before deciding upon a satis- 

 factory place to settle. This singing is actually more annoying to many 

 people than the bite itself, and the sound when it begins just as sleep 

 approaches, compels attention and effectually awakens the victim. 



The number of broods is indefinite and depends altogether upon 

 breeding possibilities. In my pails I have at almost all times all stages 

 from egg to pupa, and the same condition may usually be found in any 

 of the more permanent pools. In a rain water puddle, however, all the 

 larvae will be of about one size. 



The species occurs throughout the state, more or less abundantly. 



