MOSQUITOES. 185 



robust person may not notice the irritation, or a more deli- 

 cate person if asleep; though if weakened by disease, or if 

 stung in a highly vascular and sensitive part, such as the eye- 

 lid, the bite becomes really a serious matter. Multiply the 

 mosquito a thousand fold, and one flees their attacks and 

 avoids their haunts as he would a nest of hornets." 



It is perhaps not necessary to introduce this insect, as 

 most persons claim a very intimate acquaintance with the 

 female mosquito, w^hile they hardly know her more retiring 

 husband, who is also more beautiful, both phj^sically and 

 moralh^ There are, however, many peculiar traits in the 

 history of this aggressive insect, which but few persons are 

 aware of, and at the risk of repeating well-known facts, the 

 essential points of its life-history will be given. A glance at 

 the illustration (fig. 153) will make some of them quite 

 plain. 



Early this spring, 1896, when all plant-life was in the bonds 

 of winter, no insects could be discovered by those whose eyes 

 were not trained for seeing such things. Yet a close and 

 trained observer could readily discover in sheltered nooks 

 and corners, in cellars and stables, under loose boards and 

 under stones, a large nuinber of insects that had found win- 

 ter quarters in such places. Besides a number of different 

 flies and other insects detected in cellars, a fev^ mosquitoes 

 could be seen which were pale and by no means such active 

 beings as thej^ are later in the season. The last sno-w, which 

 fell towards the end of April, brought with it immense num- 

 bers of mosquitoes of a large size and of a pale-brown color 

 ( Culex consobririus) . The writer counted as many as lour to 

 twenty-one mosquitoes upon a square yard of level surface. 

 In northern latitudes it is not uncommon to find mosquitoes 

 even in mid-winter, and thousands appear as soon as the 

 sun comes out warm. Many years ago the writer saw in 

 February a very large swarm of mosquitoes in Detroit, 

 Mich.; they were very annoying for some Aveeks, when their 

 numbers gradually became less. Whence did they come? 

 To treat these emigrants in a hospitable manner, an old 

 barrel was cut in tw'O and filled with rain-w^ater, to attract 

 and give them a home for their offspring. Of course such 



