6 9 



The speaker, at the 191 5 spring meeting of the Association, 

 had given full account of certain intensive experimental work 

 which was being carried on under the Bureau of Entomology in 

 the delta region of the Mississippi River to indicate the economic 

 importance of malaria in plantation operations and to' devise 

 simple means by which in planning plantation management the 

 economic loss could be lessened or avoided. This year he spoke 

 of the further work in this direction carried on during the past 

 summer, and illustrated the various features of the work with 

 lantern slides. 



Mosquitoes and Bats. 



BY L. O. HOWARD, M.D., PH.D. 



The insect- feeding habits of bats have long been known, and 

 that among these insects are mosquitoes is also a matter of 

 ancient knowledge. In a work entitled "A History of British 

 Mammals," by G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, part II, November, 

 1 910, page 115, in writing about the bat of England, or flitter 

 mouse (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) , the writer says "The fondness 

 of this animal for different species of gnats has 'been observed 

 from the time when Pliny wrote (although probably of a differ- 

 ent species) ( et in cibatu culices gratissimi/ and it is probable 

 that these little flies constitute no small part of its usual food." 

 This would indicate that knowledge of the mosquito- feeding 

 habits of bats dates back to the Roman times. 



In modern times I find a note on page 221 of Entomological 

 News for September, 1901, in an account of the meeting of 

 the Feldman Collecting Social (a social entomological society 

 of Philadelphia), held June 10th, 1901, the following words: 

 "Mr. Seiss mentioned dissecting a specimen of the common 

 brown bat whose stomach was full of mosquitoes." This 

 quotation was printed on page 179 of Volume I, of the Mono- 

 graph of the Mosquitoes of North and Central America and 

 the West Indies, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1912 

 (Howard, Dyar and Knab), with the following 1 general state- 

 ment under the central heading Bats: "Bats are important 



