THE COMMON MOSQUITO 85 



those first released wero moving about actively. This, be it 

 noted, was in water not much above the freezing point. Soon 

 after the ice had melted and the debris had settled, the insects 

 were Ijusily engaged in apparent 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 trans- 

 shipped no less than four times before it reached New Brunswick 

 and was thrown into the deliv^ery wagon. Under these circum- 

 stances any regular breathing of the kind usually described was 

 utterly out of the question, and diownings should have been 

 numerous ; but really only a very sm.ill number of specimens 

 died. 



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

 taken from pitcher plants, until I had several hundred active 

 wrigglers in eight different jars. Some of the leaf chunks, Mr. 

 Brakeley informs me, had only a very few larvae — ten or a dozen; 

 others ran as high as thirty or more. 



The jars were all placed on a counter shelf near a steam radia- 

 tor and it was expected that in a few days there would be pup* 

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

 months, without change other than a gradual— a very gradual, 

 increase in size. The larvae were just as active and lively as they 

 could be expected to l)e, and w^ere feeding continuously; but 

 evidently something was lacking. Besides, they <lid not in all 

 respects behave as, according to Dr. Howard's account, they 

 sliould have done. I do not suggest that the account as printed 

 is not a perfectly accurate record of facts: merely that my speci- 

 mens were Jersey mosquitoes and therefore a law unto them- 

 selves. 



As the fragments settled to the bottom, the water l)ecame 



