154 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



I assumed that tliey must or perish. Dr. Howard in his cartful account 

 of tlie species of Culex, and especially pungens, says nothing of larval 

 liibernation. He records finding adults, and, indeed, this was in accord- 

 ance with my own experience. 



The matter dropped here until late in January, when, during a bitter 

 cold spell, Mr. Brakeley cut out a few pitcher leaves, stripped them from 

 the core of solid ice they contained, and looking through saw wrigglers 

 imbedded in all parts of it, in all sorts of shapes, but mostly in a half coil. 

 The temperature of the bog had been down to 2° below zero, as regis- 

 tered by a standard minimum thermometer, and radiation probably 

 lowered this even more. 



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

 tained were removed and the lumps were placed together in ajar in a 

 moderately warm room. The ice melted slowly, and as the larvae 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. Soon after the 

 ice had melted and the debris had settled, the insects were busily en- 

 gaged 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 transhipped no less than four times before it 

 reached New Brunswick, and was thrown into the delivery wagon. Any 

 regular breathing under these circumstances, of the kind usually de- 

 scribed, was utterly out of the question, and drownings should have been 

 numerous ; but really only a very small 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 differ- 

 ent 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 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 gradual —a very gradual — increase in size. The larvae were 

 just as active and lively as they could be expected to be, and were feeding 

 continuously ; but evidently something was lacking. Besides, they did 

 not in all respects behave as, according to Dr. Howard's account, they 

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

 a perfectly accurate record of facts : merely that my specimens were Jer- 

 sey mosquitoes and therefore a law unto themselves. 



As the fragments settled to the bottom the water became almost en- 

 tirely clear, the larvae congregated over this sediment, feeding head down 



