FOOD OF AEDES CALOPUS 259 
The domesticity of this mosquito will be apparent from the detailed account 
of habits which follows. Nearly always it is found in houses or in their im- 
mediate vicinity. Durham, at Pard and at Manaos, on the Amazon, found it a 
house mosquito. He says of it: “ Never seen out in forest away from houses, 
or in isolated huts situated away in forest. Not seen at Santa Anna, some 
twenty-five miles north of Para, or Fazenda Natal, in Marajo.” 
However, upon a number of occasions it has been found established at a dis- 
tance from habitations. The Brazilian observers at Rio de Janeiro have paid 
special attention to this question and Peryassti records its occurrence in the 
forest at a distance of 500 meters from the nearest habitation. In the vicinity 
of Rio de Janeiro both males and females of calopus were found in the woods, 
away from houses, at Gavea, Corcovado, Paineiras, Furnas da Tijuca, Sylvestre, 
and in some woods near Lagoinha. Once the larve were found in a pool at 
Furnas da Tijuca, at a great distance from habitations, and on another occasion 
at 100 meters from the Hotel do Sylvestre which is situated in an uninhabited 
region. Such occurrences must nevertheless be considered rare, even under the 
most favorable circumstances, such as those observed about Rio de Janeiro un- 
doubtedly were. 
The only other instance known to us in which calopus has been found at a 
distance from human habitation, except on trains, ships and other conveyances, 
is told by Mr. Herbert S. Barber, of the Bureau of Entomology. On July 30, 
1904, while making a trip along the supposed northern boundary of the distribu- 
tion of the yellow-fever mosquito, after dinner at Helena, Arkansas, he took a 
walk into the wooded hills in the suburbs, a hundred feet above the river. Rather 
more than a quarter of a mile after leaving the last house, in a sunny opening 
in the woods, he was kneeling down and sifting the earth for small insects, when 
a single female of calopus alighted on his hand and pierced his skin. He cap- 
tured the specimen. He searched and could find no house within a quarter of a 
mile, and there was no indication of any building having existed there before. 
He himself is sure that the mosquito was there before he arrived. Could the 
mosquito have flown this distance from the nearest house (there was no neigh- 
boring breeding-place, so far as Mr. Barber could find)? Mr. Barber thinks 
there was no possibility that the insect had come out from the town with him, 
although he was perfectly aware of the propensity of this species to hide under 
folds of garments, such as coat lapels. 
The French investigators state that sleeping rooms are the preferred habitat 
of calopus. They determined that this mosquito very rarely attempts to leave a 
room and that it does so only when in search of a suitable place to deposit its eggs. 
FEEDING HABITS. 
The French commission found that both sexes normally frequent human 
habitations and that they obtain the necessary food inside the house. The female 
sucks blood when it is available, and, as will be shown further on, needs blood to 
develop her eggs. In captivity the female has been kept alive a long time on a 
diet of honey or other sweet substances. Ficalbi makes the following statement 
18 
