Some Habits of the Adults 29 



will be discussed in detail farther on under the various 

 species. The performances of some of the insects 

 led the Doctor to remark in his notes : " I suspect 

 that Colonel Giles, should he hear of our statement, 

 will repeat with emphasis his remarks concerning 

 Celli's assertions: 'I fancy this conveys rather too 

 high an idea of the gastronomic and reproductive 

 capacity of individual insects.' " 



Dr. Dupree found that a mosquito will lay in from 

 twenty-four hours to fourteen days after the first meal 

 of blood, usually in from three to ten days. The 

 one which oviposited fourteen days after feeding was 

 C. salitiarius, which ate nothing, unless water, dur- 

 ing the fourteen days. Of course many mosquitoes 

 never taste human blood, but they bite other animals, 

 including snakes, frogs, turtles, and lizards, 1 and also 

 other insects in the larval and pupal forms of the 

 latter. 2 C. ciliaris is recorded as sucking the juices 

 of small diptera. 3 Mosquitoes are a great nuisance 

 to birds, and fanciers say that they often cause 

 the death of caged pigeons, canaries, and others, 

 so that it is well to cover the cages of pets with a 

 net. 



It has been supposed that mosquitoes will not at- 

 tack a dead body. However, the author has seen 

 the pests alight about the open thorax of a freshly 

 killed cat under dissection and drink themselves full. 

 They were C. pipiens. There were males as well as 

 females among the feasters, and they all gorged 

 themselves if undisturbed. A most interesting case, 

 in which the insects were actually observed biting a 



1 Mr. J. T. Brakeley. 2 Dr. L. O. Howard. 3 Mr. Theobald. 



