REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 55 



hide among the rubbish and in boxes or barrels, preferring 

 usually the lower portions and the side of the foundation if that 

 is of stone. In houses that are inhabited, the specimens are 

 largely confined to the cellars and, preferably, to the lower part 

 of the side walls, though they may be found anywhere. When 

 the cellar is warm, either because there is heat in it or because 

 the outside temperature is hig"h, the insects are readily disturbed 

 and, while by no means as active as in summer, they fly when 

 the attempt is made to pick them off. When the weather is cold 

 the body is brought closer to the surface, the legs are more bent 

 and drawn near the body, taking a position which Mr. Brakeley 

 calls the "hibernation squat." In this position they are really 

 dormant and allow themselves to be picked off with the fingers. 

 When the weather is very cold they will fall to the ground when 

 pushed from their hold and will lie there until revived by a rise 

 in temperature. Anopheles seems to become less completely dor- 

 mant than Cnlex and it is curious to find this species abundant 

 sometimes, in hibernating quarters, where little or nothing is 

 seen of it in summer. Thus at Lahaway, while Mr. Brakeley 

 could find larvae in small numbers at almost all times after early 

 summer, adults were rarely met with and were never abundant. 

 Yet in winter the cellar of the dwelling house and the cranberry 

 house, yielded several thousand hibernating A. punctipennis. 



In the cellars of factories close to the marshes, thousands of 

 Culex salinariiis were found on the walls and ceilings, though 

 that was the least troublesome of the species in summer. 



As the matter stands from our present knowledge, the species 

 hibernating as adults are all troublesome, and any method that 

 will relieve us of them, even in large part, will be a direct benefit 

 because it will delay their multiplication in spring. 



DESTRUCTION OF HIBERNATING ADULTS. 



The importance of a s^ystematic and thorough dealing with 

 the winter stock of both the Anopheles and the common house 

 mosquito was fully appreciated and for the purpose of making 

 some practical experiments I obtained the assistance of Mr. 

 George J. Keller, of Newark, a graduate in pharmacy with some 

 knowledge of insects and an especial knowledge of vegetable 

 poisons, among which I hoped to find some material that would 

 serve to destroy the insects without endangering human life or 

 health or injuring either fabrics or metals. 



There are probably few cellars in Newark, Elizabeth and other 

 cities where mosquitoes abound, in which there is not, during- the 



