3o8 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



European country; but whether that be so or not, certain it is 

 that the species is very much at home with us at present. 



It winters in the adult stage and ahuost any place will serve, 

 provided it • is dark and sheltered from direct winds. Barns, 

 cellars and the ordinar}- outbuildings are favorite localities, and 

 I doubt if there is a cellar or dark basement in any mosquito 

 ridden district which does not carry over its quota of hibernating 

 females. The question of mosquito cellars and how they may be 

 dealt with is treated elsewhere in this report. The astonishing 

 thing is, in some cases, how so many specimens find their way 

 into places to which there is often no direct entrance and where 

 the openings for light are kept habitually closed. Hibernation 

 begins long before breeding ends and some specimens of the 

 early September developments go into retreat, to be joined by 

 ever-increasing numbers from every succeeding brood. It has 

 been indicated that only females hibernate, and these are impreg- 

 nated before retiring; but they take no food, depending upon the 

 stored products accumulated in the larval stage. 



In the spring when warm weather has set in definitely these 

 females make their way out, seek food and lay the eggs as soon as 

 they are developed. -Xo ovarian growth takes place in the hiber- 

 nating specimens while they remain in winter quarters. Speci- 

 mens were examined by ]\Ir. Dickerson so long as any remained 

 in the cellar of his home and in no case were the eggs at all 

 enlarged in the ovaries. 



When the eggs are developed, which is rarely until late in 

 Alay, they are laid in the nearest suitable place, and almost any 

 place where there is water of any kind will answer the purpose. 

 The female oviposits at night or in the very early morning and 

 from the description of an eye witness she rests on the surface 

 with her legs extended, extrudes an egg from the ovipositor and 

 places it broad end down on the surface, resting against the hind 

 tarsi. The next egg is set against the one previously laid, and 

 as it is coated with a sticky substance it adheres to it at once. 

 And so egg after egg is placed until the boat is completed. 

 When laid the eggs are nearly white, but they usually turn nor- 

 mally dark gray or brownish before morning. About 400 eggs 

 are laid by one female ; in one boat if she is undisturbed, in two 

 or more if she is interrupted. 



It usually requires only twenty-four hours or thereabouts for 

 the larva to develop within the egg and hatch and hatching 

 usually takes place at night, the little wriggler slipping out of 

 the bottom directly into the water. 



When the adults emerge during the summer the males usually 

 appear a day or two before the females and copulation takes 



