REPORT OX MOSQUITOES. 347 



mosquito wrigglers, made an investigation of swamp conditions- 

 during a bitter cold spell. He cut out a few of the pitcher plant 

 leaves, stripped them from the core of solid ice that they contained 

 and, looking through it, saw wrigglers imbedded in all parts, in 

 all sorts of shapes; but mostly in a half coil. The temperature 

 had been down to two degrees below zero as registered by a 

 standard minimum thermometer, and radiation probably low- 

 ered this even more. 



A number of leaves were gathered, the cores of ice with all 

 they contained were removed, and the lumps were placed to- 

 gether in a jar in a moderately warm room. The ice melted 

 slowly, and, as the larvse were gradually freed, they dropped to 

 the bottom where, for a time they rested; apparently lifeless. 

 But as the amount of ice decreased, feeble motions here and 

 there indicated a revival and, long before the lumps were com- 

 pletely melted, those first released were moving about actively. 

 This, be it noted, was in water not much above the freezing 

 point and, when the ice had all melted and the debris had set- 

 tled, the larvae became busily engaged in feeding. 



The specimens were sent to me as a curiosity, January 22d, 

 and arrived in very good condition. A few had succumbed to 

 the dangers of the journey, but, altogether, there was a good 

 lot of lively wrigglers. The bottle was nearly full of water, it 

 had had a five mile wagon drive over a rough road, had been 

 transhipped no less than four times before it reached New Bruns- 

 wick, and then was thrown into a delivery wagon and jolted 

 through the city streets before it actually reached me. Under 

 these circumstances any regular breathing of the kind usually 

 described was utterly out of the question and the drownings 

 should have been numerous ; but really only a small number died. 



At short intervals other jars were received, all out of melted 

 ice taken from pitcher plants, until I had several hundred active 

 wrigglers in eight different jars. Some of the leaf chunks had 

 only ten or a dozen larvae, others ran as high as thirty or more. 

 The jars were all placed on a counter shelf near a steam radiator, 

 and it was expected that in a few days there would be pupae and 

 adults. But the days passed into weeks and the weeks into 

 months without change other than a very gradual increase in size. 

 The larvae were just as active as could be expected and fed con- 

 tinuously, but they showed no disposition to change their con- 

 dition. 



As the fragments settled the water became clear and the larvae 

 congregated over the sediment, feeding head down and fre- 

 quently rooting into it. It was rare that an individual was 

 observed at the surface with the spiracle in breathing position.. 



