MOSQUITOES. 91 



latter may be more indifferent to their assaults." Now, we cannot suppose that 

 the mosquitoes prefer a stranger to a native, or that the native does not feel 

 the bite. It is the consequences that make the difference ; the visitor dreads 

 these, the native does not, as there are none to him, he having been thoroughly- 

 inoculated ; the bites may be felt equally by both , although there are some 

 endowed with a greater amount of pachydermatous insensibility than others. 

 It is undoubtedly new comers to an affected district that suffer the worst— that 

 is if they have not previously been subjected to the attack. Usually a bite on 

 such a one raises a spot about the diameter of half a pea, hard and whiter than 

 the rest of the skin, with a distinct red dot in the centre, producing an immense 

 desire to rub the spot, which, if indulged, causes various degrees of inflammation 

 and redness, with an increased inclination to rub, lasting for two or -three hours 

 with some, but twenty-four or more with others. This sort of thing may have 

 to be endured for the whole of the first summer. After that the bite may be 

 felt just as sharp as before, but no such after-discomfort will follow. Hence 

 the apparent indifference of the native, but sufficient numbers would make 

 even him quad before their assault, but, being once clear of them, no further 

 inconvenience is felt by him. This kind of inoculation is vividly illustrated in 

 the case of children going into an infested locality to live ; for the first season 

 every bite leaves its mark conspicuous, but afterwards bites show no more than 

 if they had not been given. 



How long the mosquito lives in the mature state is not known with any 

 degree of certainty. Dr. C. Y. Riley says : " So far as we know, our northern 

 mosquitoes pass the winter in the imago state, but in limited numbers." Sup- 

 posing these hibernators are the parents of the summer crop, they might in 

 this latitude begin depositing their eggs— of which they lay about 300— in the 

 beginning of May, and allowing a month between egg and imago, we see that 

 by midsummer the number, under favourable circumstances, would be great. 

 But the question to settle is, how long does the female live in the summer 

 before depositing her eggs ? for we cannot suppose that, contrary to the nature 

 of other insects, she lives :long afterwards, unless she does not lay them all at 

 once. When one visits a piece of wood situated a long way from stagnant 

 water every few days and finds an unlimited supply kept up for weeks, or 

 even months together, it does not seem to favour an early demise. Another 

 interesting question in this connection is, are these hibernating females fertil- 

 ized before winter sets in, or do the males live over also ? 



It is the prevailing opinion that mosquitoes live exclusively on animal 

 blood, and yet, probably, not one in a million of them ever gets a taste of it. 

 It is not reasonable to suppose that the life, even of the mosquito, can be 

 sustained long without food of some sort. Several reports have been made 

 from time to time of a vegetable-feeding species of mosquito having been seen. 

 Is it a separate species, or is it our old acquaintance Culex pipiens indulging in 

 a little of her natural vegetable diet ? I once saw a mosquito on the smooth 



