34 LIFE AND HABITS OF DOMESTIC MOSQUITOS 



the bedroom ? The answer is that male mosquitos 

 live a few hours only to fertilise the females, while 

 the latter may live for months. Further, male mos- 

 quitos do not require blood for food. 



Since there are so many more males than females, 

 it must be very rare for the female to escape early 

 fertilisation. The males remain near the water 

 collection and catch the females as soon as they are 

 hatched. With the more rural species it is different. 

 These are hatched out singly from the more isolated 

 eggs, and the larvae are consequently likely to be 

 more widely separated in marshes and large collec- 

 tions of scattered water. In this case, one sees, on 

 hot, still, summer evenings, swarms of males flying 

 over cultivations and gardens. This is done probably 

 to attract any newly hatched females that may have 

 wandered or are playing truant. Coitus takes place 

 either on the wing or when resting. One male may 

 fertilise several females in succession. At each coitus, 

 the three spermathecae of the female are filled with 

 spermatozoa, unless the mosquitos are disturbed in 

 the act. These spermathecae are spherical, inelastic 

 chitinous bodies situated in the last abdominal seg- 

 ment of the female ; they can just hold the number 

 of spermatozoa requisite to fertilise all the eggs laid 

 in each brood. If a female lays a whole egg-raft or 

 complete brood, she exhausts all the spermatozoa 

 within her spermathecae and then she must again 

 cohabit with a male in order to be replenished. 

 This is the reason why males are likely to remain in 

 or resort to the places where the females commonly 



