70 THE MOSQUITOES OF NEW JERSEY 



row of tufts normal, confined to barred area. Anal gills longer than 

 ninth segment and rather stout. Larva varies slightly in length of anal 

 siphon and anal gills. 



HABITS OF THE EARLY STAGES 



This larva may be found almost anywhere in stagnant water. Any- 

 thing will answer, from a tin can half full of rain water to a sewer basin, 

 cesspool, manure pit, pool of rain water that lasts eight or ten days, 

 bucket, tub or other receptacle left outdoors, rain barrel, or even a wa- 

 tering trough that is rarely emptied. In cities and towns sewer basins, 

 neglected sunken lots in which water accumulates, ditches along roads 

 when allowed to become overgrowh and choked — all are prolific sources 

 of supply. And they will breed indoors as well as out if given a chance. 

 I have found a brood in a battery jar left half filled with water in the 

 laboratory, and have seen wrigglers in the concave floor below a shower 

 bath which had become filled because of a plug in the waste pipe. In one 

 of the leading seashore resorts many of the large hotels have a space 

 from two to six feet below the basement floor in which pools form from 

 surface drainage, and in these pools larvae develop in countless num- 

 bers. They find their way through the elevator shafts into the house and 

 throughout the rooms, to the great discomfort of the guests. I found 

 that I could leave my windows open safely at night, if only I closed the 

 fanlight into the hall. It is this ability to develop almost anywhere that 

 makes Culex pipiens our most common and widely distributed species. 



After hatching from the egg as already described, the larva requires 

 from six to eight days to attain full growth, six the minimum period in 

 midsummer when food is plentiful, eight the more usual period. When 

 weather is cold and water clean it requires a longer period and resulting 

 adults tend to become dwarfed, as they do when a pool dries up so fast 

 as to crowd the insects and force them into the pupal stage. 



In the pupal stage the insects remain for two or three days, some- 

 times longer if the weather be cold. Rarely the entire development from 

 egg to adult is crowded into one week. 



Larvae are rarely found until well along in May, and then only in 

 comparatively small numbers. During July and August swarms of lar- 

 vae may be found in any suitable place. They continue in decreasing 

 numbers after September until hard frost. I have found some of them 

 under quarter-inch ice in November and bred adults from them. 



This larva is typical in habit, entirely dependent upon the outer air 

 for its supply of oxygen, and succumbs readily to any oily covering of 

 its breeding place. 



