26 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



their eggs, and this they do early in the morning. 

 In temperate climates there are three or four 

 generations during the summer, the latest being 

 through September and October. It has been 

 calculated that if the number of eggs laid by 

 the female be 150, the number of the descendants 

 by the fourth generation would amount to over 

 thirty million. This may account for the 

 enormous numbers in which mosquitos are found 

 in places like Finland, Siberia, and other northern 

 climates. 



The eggs are rather like little lifeboats, with 

 a float on each side which keeps the ova the 

 right way up. They are black with a certain 

 iridescence, and, like all other objects floating 

 on the surface, they tend to form star-like or 

 reticulated patterns, and if they are near where 

 the water touches the edge of the vessel they 

 are drawn a little way up. But the head-end of 

 the egg always points downwards, so that should 

 the larva emerge whilst in this position it at 

 once gets into its proper element. The larva 

 emerges during the second or third day after 

 oviposition, according to the temperature. It is one 

 of the most interesting aquatic larvae we know. It 

 hangs on the lower surface of the surface-film by a 



