REMARKABLE EARLY WORK 23 
followed by later writers, frequently without credit, it is a curious fact that the 
duration of the different stages as ascertained by him in Paris prior to 1738 
should have been slavishly quoted in standard works as the duration of the stages 
of practically all mosquitoes. Down to the publication of the life-history of 
Culex pipiens in America by one of us in 1896, the data established by Réaumur 
in a different part of the world have been considered as applicable to all mos- 
quitoes. The frequent references to Réaumur by Miall in his admirable book 
entitled “The Natural History of Aquatic Insects,” published in London in 
1895, shows that even at the present time, and with the latest instruments and 
methods of research, the French author practically remains standard. 
Most of the accounts of the early writers are based on material obtained from 
tain-water barrels or like receptacles and consequently treat of the same species 
of mosquito, the common Culex pipiens, or at most closely related forms. As 
we have already mentioned, the transformation so faithfully described by 
Wagner was not that of a mosquito but a Chironomus, a midge quite similar in 
general appearance. A Parisian naturalist, Joblot, in 1754, was the first to 
describe the larva of Anopheles in “Observations d’histoire naturelle, faites 
avec le microscope, sur un grand nombre d’Insectes.” We have not seen this 
work. 
The Swedish naturalist, De Geer, in the sixth volume of his “ Mémoires,” 
published in 1776, gives a chapter on mosquitoes with many interesting original 
observations. He had already determined that the adults are by no means 
restricted to a blood diet. He states that they visit various flowers to suck honey 
and that he had found them particularly abundant on the blooms or catkins of 
the willow. He gives an excellent description of the mating habits and of the 
swarms of dancing males. He appears to have been the first to observe the 
larvee of the species of Aédes which develop in the snow-water of early spring 
and which are the predominating mosquitoes in northern countries. “It is in 
the stagnant waters of ponds and swamps that the larve of mosquitoes live, and 
which swarm with them in the spring and summer; but it is principally during 
the first season, and in those in which the ice has melted, that one finds them in 
abundance.” Very naturally De Geer confused the species of Culex and Aédes, 
and io complete his description of the life-history he drew upon Réaumur, re- 
peating his statements for Culex pipiens regarding the eggs, the succession of 
generations and the mode of hibernation. The Aédes he appears principally to 
have had under observation have but one brood and lay their eggs singly, facts 
which have only been determined within the present century and which will be 
found discussed in our general account of the habits of mosquitoes. 
The German miniature painter Kleemann published, in continuation of 
Rosel’s “ Insecten-Belustigungen ” a remarkable work under the title “ Beytrage 
zur Natur- und Insecten-Geschichte.” The work in some respects even exceeds 
that of the famous Réaumur. Thus we find in the chapter on mosquitoes (vol. 
1, 1792, pp. 125-148, plates 15 and 16) that, while he gives the observations of 
Réaumur and others, he has verified them by observation, adding to them, and 
in some cases criticizing them. His plates, particularly the one illustrating the 
