CHAPTER V 



THE MOSQUITO {Anopheks maculipennis) 



Part II 



There in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 



Among the river sallows, borne aloft 



Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies. 



(John Keats, To Autumn.) 



The female imago hibernates. Finsch made 

 observations and found it hibernating on 

 the frozen Siberian tundras, beneath the moss 

 and snow. SterHng found them in North 

 America when the snow was melting, in great 

 numbers, and he and his party were subse- 

 quently terribly bitten. There is no doubt that 

 female imagines live throughout the winter, 

 and they can be found in England, hibernating 

 in cellars, old out-houses, chicken-houses, or 

 disused farm buildings. These hibernating 

 females disappear early in May, presumably 

 having laid their eggs. Dr. Thayer of Balti- 

 more describes these creatures, having found 

 them on the roofs and walls of barns near 

 New Orleans. Whether the male also hiber- 



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