AEDES SOLLICITANS 663 



" From the Newark Marshes — using that term generally to include also all 

 that section within the corporate limits of Elizabeth — the insects were traced to 

 the second ridge of the Orange Mountains, to Paterson, to Morristown, and to 

 Sununit, in gradually decreasing numbers. 



"From the Earitan Marshes they were traced along the river to Bound 

 Brook, to Somerville, to Dunellen and to Plainfield. Just how far inland this 

 swarm penetrated I do not know. 



" Meanwhile Dr. Nelson was observing along the shores of Great Bay and the 

 mouth of the Mullica River, finding little mosquito trouble on the marsh until 

 July 13th. On or aboiit that day an extra high tide came over it, and on the 13th 

 minute wrigglers were in every water-filled hole. Cold, wet weather retarded 

 development, but on the 21st males were out in clouds and everything was in 

 the pupal stage. On the morning of the 23d the females were out, but would not 

 bite. On the evening of the 33d it was warm, with only a slight breeze, and the 

 Doctor was brought from his hut by a peculiar humming noise which seemed to 

 fill the air. He located its source at last between sixteen and twenty feet high 

 above the marsh, where regular clouds of mosquitoes were hovering in their 

 marriage flight. On the 24th few males were seen, but the females were in 

 droves and as bloodthirsty as butchers. Then came cold west and north winds 

 that kept the insects low down among the grass. On the 28th the wind veered 

 to the south and continued all that night and all day on the 29th. On the morn- 

 ing of the 29th the number of mosquitoes on the marsh had diminished mate- 

 rially, and this was yet more decidedly marked on the morning of the 30th, when 

 they were quite bearable. But in the woods where on the 20th there had been few 

 mosquitoes they were worse on the 31st, when the Doctor came out to Tuckerton, 

 than they were on the marsh itself. 



" Just after receiving this account from Dr. Nelson, I received a note from 

 Mr. Brakeley, giving in detail a record of the arrival of Culex sollicitans in the 

 pines, during the nights of July 38th and 29th, increasing during the successive 

 nights to August 1st, when they were distributed everyivhere in great numbers. 

 Previously there had been practically none of this species, and the observed 

 departure on the 38th and 39th from the marshes and the arrivals in great 

 swarms over thirty miles away on the days immediately foUowiag, leaves no 

 question as to the connection between the two. That the species could have bred 

 locally is out of question, because the larval status of the pine region was 

 thoroughly known. 



" In the Spring of 1904 weather conditions were unusually favorable for the 

 development of a heavy brood of cantafor along the entire coast north of the 

 Great Bay. As early as March the larvae were found everywhere, and on the 

 Shrewsbury River marshes it was a race between the ditchers and the insect as 

 to which should win out. A few cold days retarded the insects and gave the 

 workers the chance of finishing the ditches that ran off full grown larvae and 

 pupae by the millions into the maws of hungry ' killies ' that followed hard after 

 the spades. The result was, no first brood on these meadows and the consequent 

 exemption from mosquito attack of the entire surrounding territory ! 



" On the Newark marshes the brood developed and early in May spread 

 inland, covering a territory even greater than the broods of 1903, for now they 

 were traced into the mountains north of Paterson and directly west to Bemards- 

 ville, where in ordinary seasons mosquitoes are practically unknown. 



" The Raritan River brood reached New Brunswick May 13th and the nights 

 immediately following, and extended along the valley to Somerville, following 

 essentially the same track as in 1903. 



" At Lahaway the first arrivals were noted May 17th, and by the 34th the 

 Pines were filled with them. 



