184 THE MOSQUITOES OF NEW JERSEY 



This record of collections made is an interesting one and proves 

 positively that the larva of Theobaldia melanurus lives through the 

 winter in the half grown condition. It is essentially a clean water wrig- 

 gler and requires a sheltered locality, like woodland, or an overgrown 

 swamp area, to develop. An area that freezes solid would probably 

 prove fatal, but in spring water the temperature rarely gets much 

 below 40°, even in the coldest weather, and when there is an ice cover- 

 ing in the swamp there are the recesses under the edges and the deep, 

 soft mud to serve as retreats. I have no record of the recurrence of 

 this larva in the springs before October, and none of the summer col- 

 lections contained specimens. Nor have I seen any very small larvae 

 or eggs. 



A characteristic feature of the species is its remarkably slow growth 

 in spring and the long delay in pupation. The larvae are half grown, 

 or more, before canadcTisis, or aurifer, are born, yet the latter become 

 adult as soon, or sooner. They are slow in their movements and seem 

 to take life easy, "like a group of dreamy philosophers," as one col- 

 lector puts it. They are bottom-feeders of necessity, since the water 

 in which they live has only a small supply of organic life, but in the 

 leaves at the bottom of the springs and in the mud of the swamp pools 

 their food is found. So they have well developed trachea in the anal 

 gills and are not dependent upon atmospheric air for their supply of 

 oxygen. This peculiarity is also essential, as their swamp breeding 

 places become completely ice covered. 



As to the egg laying habits, nothing is known to me. They are prob- 

 ably laid on the surface and may, or may not, sink to the bottom be- 

 fore hatching. 



Orthopodomyia signifera Coquillet 

 The White-Lined Mosquito 



DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERIZATION 



[Eastern United States from Massachusetts to Texas. Trapped 

 sixty-one females in New Jersey.] 



Medium sized, black, with hind tarsi broadly white-banded at each 

 end of joints, last one entirely white; bands of front and middle tarsi 

 very narrow, if present at all, confined to apices of joints, except 

 first one on the middle tarsi. The beak unhanded. Thorax black, 

 marked with narrow white lines. Wings grayish, with distinct white 



