222 THE MOSQUITOES OF NEW JERSEY 



yellow, hairs composing them pectinated at extreme tips and mentum 

 broadly pentagonal, concave at base, with large apical tooth and from 

 seven to ten uniform smaller ones on each side ; nine being usual number. 

 Palpus longer than wide with rudimentary apical tuft, stout basal 

 joint, and row of acutely pointed processes on one side. Mandible 

 shaped as in Culex, but has only single curved dorsal spine, and is exca- 

 vated between this spine and apex. Thorax quadrate, broader than long, 

 has sinuous lateral margins, each with three groups of long hair tufts ; 

 several short ones on the anterior and posterior margins. 



Abdomen slender, segments similar, with long lateral hair tufts of 

 four or five hairs to each tuft in anterior segments, two or three in pos- 

 terior ones. Number of shorter tufts below and above these long ones on 

 each of segments. Lateral combs of eighth segment consist, each, of 

 eleven to fifteen scales arranged in single row, individual scale elongated 

 and fringed with short hairs at sides. Anal siphon four to four and one- 

 half times as long as broad at base, tapers evenly toward apex. Creamy 

 white, apex brownish ; lateral rows of spines entirely absent, surface set 

 with numerous long hairs scattered unevenly. Ninth segment almost 

 square, with tufts of long hair on apical margin and two small processes 

 representing gills. 



HABITS OF THE EARLY STAGES 



My first acquaintance with the insect began in late November, 1900, 

 when Mr. Brakeley called m}^ attention to the fact that, in the pitcher 

 plants in the swamps surrounding his cranberry bogs at Lahaway, 

 there were what he thought mosquito larvae. The matter did not inter- 

 est me very strongly at the time ; I assumed that it was pipiens. 



Though the weather was yet mild, mosquitoes were no longer obtru- 

 sive. There were occasional specimens to be sure, but they seemed to be 

 left-overs, not yet in hibernating condition. The species, unfortunately, 

 was not determined ; I was not yet, at that time, a mosquito crank. The 

 interesting point was that in every leaf examined there were wrigglers, 

 varying in size from an eighth to a quarter-inch in length. There was 

 always a mass of insect fragments at the bottom, say from one-half to 

 an inch in depth, and in composition this varied from a dense black ooze 

 at the lowest point to entire or only partly decayed sp£cimens at the 

 top of the mass. 



The matter dropped here until January, 1901, when Mr. Brakeley, 

 who believes that nature wastes nothing, not even mosquito wrigglers, 

 made an investigation of swamp conditions during a bitter cold spell. 

 He cut out a few of the pitcher plant leaves, stripped them from the 



