ON THE HABITS OF THE MARINE MOSQUITO 
141 
Coitus may take place from one hour to twelve hours after hatching, and 
the fertilized females are ready to feed immediately after when the weather is warm. 
Acartomyia zammitii will feed in the daytime as well as at night and even by 
strong artificial light. 
I have watched the process of feeding carefully. 
When one's hand is placed at the mouth of the jar containing a fertilized 
female, the mosquito, after one or two preliminary hops, settles on the skin. It 
then starts to clean its proboscis with its fore legs ; and then moves about apparently 
searching for a favourable site for its puncture. The proboscis is pushed into the 
skin quite slowly and sometimes is quickly withdrawn, as if the place chosen had 
been found unsuitable and another place sought. The process of filling usually takes 
about a minute, this differing from the biting fly (Stomoxys) found out here which fills 
itself in a few seconds. 
1 have noticed that only the tip of the proboscis pierces the skin, the proboscis 
being bent in the middle, the antennae being bent over the head while the animal is 
feeding. 
We have only kept this mosquito alive for eight days in captivity, for they 
always have either died while laying, their eggs, owing, we think, to the vibration of 
ship's dynamos, for we have been unable to work on shore. 
I have caught one in a ship, however, which has not been anchored near the 
shore for two months ; and have also caught them in the winter. The larvae are 
first found in April and disappear from the pools in October. 
Up to the present we have found Acartomyia at the following places : — 
Marmarice in Asia Minor, Beyrut, Port Said, Malta, Ajjaccio in Corsica, Algiers, 
Gibraltar (last year only) ; Algeceiras at neap tides only as the pools were washed 
out at spring tides. 
Of the collection I am sending you, those numbered 1, 2, 3, were caught by me 
in houses in Port Said, where they were breeding in salt cesspools; two of these 
contain blood. 
The flask I am sending you contains some eggs of Acartomyia laid June 8 ; the 
mosquito was drowned while laying them, and is also in the flask. This mosquito 
had bitten a Maltese fever patient, and then for five days three non-immunes. 
The water has evaporated and shows the salt crystalized on the bottom of the 
flask, for 1 placed some of the water in the flask from which the mosquito herself 
was hatched. 
I think there is no doubt that Malta fever is conveyed by either Acartomyia or 
by a biting fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) which is very prevalent out here. 
H.M.S. 'Lancaster' 
Mediterranean Fleet 
September 14th, 1905 
