e 
THE MOSQUITOES OF THE SOUTHEASTERN STATES 47 
and commonly migrates in large swarms many miles from its 
breeding place. In Florida specimens sometimes are taken in the 
interior of the peninsula when broods emerge on the coast. The 
adults settle in the grass during the daytime and are extremely 
annoying to persons who come in their vicinity, attacking in full 
sunlight. The flight of migratory swarms begins just before dark, 
and the numbers that may be encountered in salt-marsh areas at this 
time are almost unbelievable. In the southern half of Florida the 
species may be found through the winter and is more prevalent in 
the spring and fall than in the summer. Adults have also been found 
in the winter along the Mississippi coast (66). Although breeding 
of this species is limited mostly to salt marshes or other coastal loca- 
tions, there are records of its development inland associated with 
salt water pumped from oil wells. Carpenter (47) found them to 
be rather common near oil fields in Union and Ouachita Counties in 
Arkansas, and adults and larvae from this area were sent the writers 
for confirmation of the identification. Of interest also is a record 
for the species from Eddy County, N. Mex., where they were 
found by M. A. Barber in 1938 in a brackish swamp near Artesia. 
Methods for the control of the salt-marsh species are discussed in the 
section on Mosquito Control (p. 18). 
Adults of sollicitans are recognized by a median, dorsal longi- 
tudinal stripe of pale scales on the abdomen, the mixed black and 
white scaling of the wings, and the golden color of the mesonotum. 
The proboscis and the legs have wide white rings, and the first seg- 
ment of the hind tarsus has a white ring in the middle. 
AEDES TAENIORHYNCHUS (Wied.) 
(Syn., A. taeniorhynchus niger Giles (not Theob.) ; the black salt-marsh mosquito) 
This small black and white mosquito is the most abundant and 
troublesome salt-marsh species along at least the southern two-thirds 
of the Florida coasts, which is also approximately the area where 
mangrove and pickleweed (saltwort) form the predominant marsh 
vegetation (pls. 4,8, and 6,4). In smaller numbers taeniorhynchus 
occurs along the Atlantic coast as far north as the New England 
States and along the Gulf coast to Mexico. Unlike sollicitans it is 
found on the Pacific coast in southern California. It also occurs 
commonly in the West Indies and in Central and South America to 
the Guianas and Peru. While it is usually not the predominant 
species along the Atlantic coast north of Florida, collections from 
four light traps operated nightly at Charleston, S. C., from July 
19 to November 1, 1939 (56), gave a total of nearly 10,000 taenio- 
rhynchus specimens compared with about 200 sollicitans. In a series 
of light-trap collections made by McCreary (1/3) at Fenwick Island 
lighthouse in southern Delaware in 1940, the total counts over a 60- 
day period, excluding the collection for one night, showed nearly 
equal numbers of the two species (about 6,500 of each from two 
traps). On the night of September 10 the enormous total of 271,- 
772 mosquitoes were obtained from a single trap (operated at ground 
level), of which 192,221 were taentorhynchus and 69,465 were sollici- 
tans. From many collections obtained by the writers in similar 
traps in Florida the maximum record for taeniorhynchus for a single 
