NOTES ON THE MOSOUITOES OF THE UNITED 



STATES. 



ON MOSQUITOES IN GENERAL. 



Abundance of mosquitoes. — The literature of popular entomology is 

 full of instances of the enormous numbers in which mosquitoes occa- 

 sionally occur. Persons interested in this line of curious reading- 

 should consult Kirby and Spence's An Introduction to Entomolog3^ 

 Volume 1. pages 11:^-120. and Frank Cowan's Curious Facts in the 

 History of Insects, pages 278-286. Referring- to their occurrence in 

 the far noi-thern regions, Kirby and Spence, for example, bsly: "In Lap- 

 lapd their num})ers are so prodigious as to be compared to a flight of 

 snow when the flakes fall thickest or to the dust of the earth. The 

 natives can not take a mouthful of food or lie down to sleep in their 

 cabins unless the\" be fumigated almost to suffocation. In the air you 

 can not draw your ))reath without having your mouth and nostrils 

 tilled with them, and unguents of tar, iish grease, or cream, or nets 

 steeped in fetid birch oil are scarceh' sufficient to protect even the case- 

 hardened cuticle of the Laplander from their bite." Elsewhere the 

 same authorities say: "In the neighborhood of the Crimea the Russian 

 soldiers are obliged to sleep in sacks to defend themselves from the 

 mosquitoes, and even this is not a sufficient security, for several of 

 them die in consequence of mortification produced by the bites of these 

 furious bh)odsuckers.'' Elsewhere: "And C-aptain St«^dman. in Amer- 

 ica, as a proof of the dreadful state to which he and his soldiers were 

 reduced by them, mentions that they were forced to sleep with their 

 heads thrust into holes made in the earth with their bayonets and 

 their necks wrapped round with their hammocks."' Hum])()ldt says: 

 "Between the little harbor of Higuerote and the mouth of the Rio 

 Unare the wretched inhabitants are accustomed to stretcli th(unselves 

 on the ground and pass the nights buried in the sand 3 or 4 inches 

 deep, leaving out the head only, which they cover with a handker- 

 chief." Theodoretus says that Sapor, King of Persia, was compelled 

 to raise the siege of Nisibis by a plague of gnats, which attacked his 

 elephants and beasts of burdcMi and so caused the rout of his army. 



In modern times nearly every hunter and fisherman in this country 

 has had experience with mosquitoes which renders easy of belief all 

 of the old-time stories. The instance mentioned in Bulletin No. 4, of 

 8495— No. 25—05^ — -2 y 



