HOUSEHOLD AND CAMP INSECTS 



27 



The house or rain-barrel mosquito^^ is a modestly colored brown 

 mosquito which is frequently troublesome about dwellings and 

 winters in cellars or other retreats. The long-tubed larvae or wrig- 

 glers of this mosquito are found almost exclusively in artificial col- 

 lections of water, especially tubs, rain barrels, eave troughs, etc. 

 The conspicuous, moderately stout air tube near the posterior ex- 

 tremity of the body has a length about five times its diameter. 



Fig. 10 House mosquito Egg mass 

 with enlarged eggs above and at tne leit; 

 young wrigglers below. (Reduced from 

 ir.oward, U. S. Dep't Agr. Div. Ent. Bui. 

 25. n. s. 1900) 



This common, semidomesticated species deposits its black, raftlike 

 clusters of eggs upon standing water with the approach of warm 

 weather, and breeding may be continued under favorable conditions 

 till checked by frosts in the fall. There are records of this insect 

 breeding in large numbers in sluggish, foul streams, though this is 

 somewhat unusual. 



The yellow fever mosquito''*^ is medium sized, dark brown, and 

 with a strongly contrasting silvery white lyre-shaped mark on the 

 thorax. It is widely distributed in the southern states, and may 

 occasionally establish itself farther north during the summer. It is 

 frequently known as the " day mosquito " and is of particular in- 

 terest because of its being the only known carrier of yellow fever. 

 It must, however, like the malaria mosquito, become inoculated 

 before it can in turn transmit the disease to man. This mosquito 

 appears to have in the south much the same habits as our northern 

 house or rain-barrel mosquito does in the north. It breeds bv 

 preference in the water of cisterns, tanks and other places, and 

 appears to be unable to sustain itself in the open. The larvae or 



^^Culex pipiens Linn. 

 60Aedes calopus Meign. 



