1903] SMITH:— CULEX c^ 



the pools were crowded with pupae and a small proportion of full grown larvae. 

 The grass was now full of adults which made life almost unbearable unless some 

 method was used to keep them ofT. The practical disappearance of the earlier 

 broods before the new brood issued fixed the age of these specimens and there 

 was no other general brood that developed later on these meadows. I thought 

 this a good opportunity to ascertain how long a time it would require for eggs to 

 develop and hence had the collections made daily for some time. Yet at the end 

 of the season I had no evidence that even one example out of the entire brood laid 

 even a single egg ! Lot after lot was received with absolutely undeveloped 

 ovaries and not even a single example was found having eggs ready to be laid ! 

 The question is, did they lay any at all? In sods collected after the water had 

 drained off none were found, and practically I do not know where the eggs are 

 that w'xW start C. soUkitaiis next spring. Dr. Dyar has suggested, in connection with 

 another species, that of eggs laid in spring some might hatch during the summer 

 but that others would lie over until the season following. It is, of course, possible 

 that the same thing occurs in this case and that unhatched eggs are yet on the 

 meadows, ready to develop under favorable conditions next spring. As to the 

 number of eggs laid by a female, the dissections made gave an average of about 

 175. A very few reached 200 and very few had less than 150 unless the number 

 was very small. 



Another peculiarity of C. sollkitans in New Jersey is, its habit of travelling 

 long distances inland, either by flight or by allowing itself to be carried by the pre- 

 vailing winds. After the middle of July the entire pine region of South Jersey 

 gradually fills up with these insects, sometimes swarming miles from any water and 

 forty miles from any point where C. sollicitans larva has ever been found. On two 

 occasions I made systemitic search during two or three days, over a large area 

 where C. soUicitans was the dominant species, finding larvae of forms whose adults 

 escaped attention, but none of the shore species. Nor did I ever find in the pines 

 even one adult example in wliich the ovaries were at ail developed. August 

 15th, I captured 253 examples in one area in Ocean County, by sweeping so as to 

 get old, inactive specimens, and not one of these had the ovaries in the least devel- 

 oped. A lot of 90 was captured a few days before by picking them from the coat 

 of the collector and these were found in a similar undeveloped condition. I 

 omitted to mention that in these flights, so far away from home, the males have no 

 part — only the females wander. It is quite certain that none of the millions of 

 these mosquitoes that infest the Jersey pines ever reproduce, because the surround- 

 ings are not suitable; and it is almost equally certain that they could not if they 

 had the opportunity, because the ova simply do not develop. 



The life period of the individual of this species is not determined ; but it is 



