REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 203 



I have seen both sexes of this species feeding in the blossoms 

 of wild cherry, and it is quite probable that vegetable juices 

 form a considerable element in the food of this species. As to 

 the number of broods, that depends altogether upon weather and 

 tide conditions, from five to eight being, perhaps, usual. 



The egg-laying habits of the species are interesting and were 

 carefully studied. 



EGG-LAYING HABITS. 



When it became evident that this species did not behave as, ac- 

 cording to published records, it should, and that neither eggs nor 

 larvse could be obtained at New Brunswick, though the adults 

 simply swarmed there, I arranged with the Keystone Rod and 

 Gun Club, at Anglesea, for the use of part of their land for a 

 series of experiments meant to determine just where and how 

 eggs were laid. Every facility was afforded by the club and by 

 its members individually, and during the early summer of 1902 

 Mr. Dickerson and myself planted a series of eight tubs, which 

 were meant to represent various marsh conditions, and stocked 

 these with larvae, pupae and adults, covering with netting to 

 control the outcome, but leaving two open to the swarms in- 

 festing the surrounding meadow. We found gravid females 

 abundant in certain places and confined a number of them in 

 quart jars under varying conditions. Some jars had water and 

 some had none; some had vegetation, others only bare marsh 

 mud, and so altogether about a dozen jars were prepared, each 

 to receive from two to ten gravid females. Next morning a large 

 proportion of the jars had eggs, all of them black and laid un- 

 der so many conditions that conclusions were difficult. Another 

 series of captures, when carefully examined, led us to believe that 

 the eggs became black within the ovary of the female, and that 

 they were of that color when laid. 



The tub experiments, details of which need not be given, indi- 

 cated that the marsh mud was the place to look for the eggs of 

 sollicifans, and some pieces of sod from an old breeding area 

 were at once secured. The result was that in twelve hours we 

 had a large brood of baby wrigglers and had demonstrated, by 

 actual observation, that the marsh mud everywhere round about 

 was more or less densely covered with mosquito eggs ; most 

 denselv in the lowest, damp areas. Other observations made 

 during the year confirmed this conclusion, and a series of labor- 

 atory experiments with sods brought to New Brunswick 

 .sliowed that the eggs might survive an almost complete drying 



