Some Habits of the Adults 39 



specimens to see if at least traces of the other gills 

 were not present, I failed to find any. The speci- 

 mens being in poor condition, however, I was not 

 satisfied, but desired to examine live specimens. On 

 inquiry it was ascertained that there are no wild pit- 

 cher-plants in the District of Columbia, that a number 

 were brought from South Carolina several years ago, 

 and are now in the greenhouses in the Botanical Gar- 

 dens. On a forlorn hope, I searched these plants and 

 was delighted to find, on June 16th, a larva of the sec- 

 ond stage, and, on July 8th, three more. Examining 

 these living specimens, there were seen, not rudi- 

 ments, but two well-developed gills, pointed, about 

 one-third the length of the two large inflated ones, 

 and situated above them. The published descrip- 

 tions had probably been made from alcoholic speci- 

 mens, where the gills are extremely hard to find, 

 even when known to be present, as they shrink 

 between the larger two and it is necessary to remove 

 one of the latter in order to see the smaller gills 

 plainly. But the point, from which I have somewhat 

 digressed, is that W. smitliii larvae must have been 

 brought all the way from South Carolina in the pitcher 

 plant leaves, and the species had established itself 

 and gone on breeding in the conservatory, for it is 

 not likely that one or two adults should find their 

 way from some distant point in Maryland or Virginia, 

 to the middle of the District, into a greenhouse in 

 the midst of the city. 



It seems wonderful that, fragile as they are, mos- 

 quitoes should be able to survive the cold of the Arc- 

 tic region, but it is well known that they are there 



