MOSQUITO BIOLOGY 151 



Combs of eighth segment have from eighteen to twenty-eight fringed 

 scales in each patch. Anal siphon three and one-half times as long as 

 broad, with straight sides, does not taper much toward apex. Lateral 

 rows of spines consist each of fourteen to twenty toothed spines. Indi- 

 vidual spine much broadened at basal half, with five to seven teeth. 

 Ninth segment little longer than wide, with usual double tuft, each hav- 

 ing one very long hair on dorsal part of apical margin. Barred area on 

 ventral part, with ten to twelve tufts of five or six hairs each. Anal gills 

 moderately long, without obvious tracheae. 



HABITS OF THE EAKLY STAGES 



Practically all our knowledge of this species indicates a general dis- 

 tribution in the state, but a rare occurrence at any point. All who have 

 taken the larvae have found them associated with that of canadensis and 

 have found them comparatively rare. They do not hug the edge of the 

 pool so generally as do some of the other species, but favor tufts of 

 grass, rushes or vines several feet from shore. No aurifer larvae have 

 been collected with the earliest canadensis, and from such data as I 

 have at hand it seems that the eggs begin to hatch during the early 

 days of March and that the larvae grow quite rapidly at first, as 

 though they might produce the earliest adults. But they linger in the 

 last stage, and the first pupae require from five to nine days to mature. 



Eggs of aurifer have not been obtained by me ; but there seems little 

 doubt that they are laid like those of canadensis, though probably dif- 

 ferent in form. The water is drawn from the bogs before the aurifer 

 adults disappear, hence the eggs must be laid in the bog mud, where 

 they rest until they become water covered again in late fall and hatch in 

 the spring following. I have no evidence that there is more than one 

 brood of this species. The pupa is recognizable from that of canadensis 

 by its decidedly larger size and white air-tubes. 



Aedes cinereus Meigen 

 The Little Smoky Mosquito 



DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERIZATION 



[Canada and United States from the Atlantic Ocean to British 

 Columbia but is less abundant southward to Arkansas. In New Jersey 

 ninety-seven specimens have been trapped.] 



Small dark brown with black unhanded legs and beak ; thorax evenly 

 brown, sometimes with faint longitudinal black lines, abdomen black, 



