138 Mosquitoes 



state, either out-of-doors under bark or in hollow trees 

 or caves, or, which they greatly prefer, indoors, par- 

 ticularly in cellars and privies. They seek winter 

 quarters at the first chill, and as, in the North, they 

 frequently do not reappear until late May, the life of 

 the adult is often eight or nine months. The males do 

 not hibernate, the mating being in the fall. Dr. Smith 

 says that the females do not feed before retiring, but 

 are fat, the adipose tissue disappearing as the spring 

 approaches, evidently going to develop the ovaries. 

 Usually they stay in one spot all winter, hugging the 

 wall closer as the weather is colder, extending the 

 legs as it grows warmer, and not until summer 

 weather has fully set in is there any attempt at flight 

 (Smith). However, if it is a warm and open winter 

 they may fly and bite, both outdoors and in ; they 

 will do it indoors anyway if the house tempera- 

 ture is high enough. 



The attitude during hibernation is rather different 

 from that assumed in warm weather, the hind legs 

 being drawn in and the body brought close to the 

 wall. In summer, as Cuthbert Clensby remarks, 

 Anoplieles looks like a thorn sticking in the wall, the 

 hind end of the body being well elevated, at almost 

 90 to the wall, the proboscis in line with the body 

 and the hind legs extended (but not curved) upward, 

 waving about as feelers, to prevent a rear attack. 

 Mosquitoes of other genera usually sit with the 

 body parallel to the wall ; they occasionally assume 

 an Anopheles-Yike. position, but in these cases, so far 

 as the writer has observed, the hind legs are not 

 straight but curved upward. The posture, the usu- 



