286 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1919 
of assembling and dispersing and the scant half hour during 
which the swarms were definite enough to be called such, might 
indicate a precise purpose and an exact time of the day for 
carrying out that purpose. 
On this afternoon a very mild breeze was blowing, but there 
were occasional gusts which seemed to stimulate the mosquitoes 
to greater activity and to cause them to bunch together with a 
very quick movement, as players in a foot-ball scrimmage. If 
I stood perfectly still beneath a swarm, it came close to my 
head; if, on the other hand, I even gently thrust my hand up- 
ward, the Anophelines rose en masse away from it. 
During the whole time of swarming, two dragon flies were 
darting in and out of the swarms, and each quite obviously 
caught a mosquito every time. 
The two remarkable features of these occurrences are that 
the insects are Anophelines, and that they were swarming 
during a very stiff breeze on each occasion. Many observers, 
entomologists as well as non-entomologists, have maintained 
that high winds are inimical to the welfare of the mosquito, 
and that the insects will not venture forth when strong winds 
are blowing. It has been repeatedly stated that when mosqui- 
toes are found at a distance from water, they have been wafted 
thither by gentle breezes. G. M. Giles, says : 7 
* * * as naturalists are generally agreed that gnats cannot travel 
to any considerable distance, it follows that food both for adult and larva 
must be obtained within a limited area, for mosquitoes cannot and do not 
fly far. It is impossible to fix any absolute limit to their powers in this 
respect, but it may be safely asserted that few individuals ever stray 
much more than a quarter of a mile from the pool in which their larval 
youth was passed, and the great majority never travel further than the 
nearest shady spot. Nor, in spite of popular beliefs to the contrary, can 
they be carried far by the wind. Mosquitoes, indeed, exhibit a well- 
founded, instinctive dread of boisterous weather, and will not leave shelter 
in a high wind. Those accidentally carried away are, I am inclined to 
think, rapidly disabled. 
Another reason that makes it impossible for Mosquitoes to be carried 
overseas any considerable distance by the wind is that, whatever may be 
the rate of travel that they can bear without injury, the entire journey 
must be made at night, for in tropical regions shelter from the sun during 
the day is a matter of life and death to a Mosquito * * *. 
For these reasons, we may, I think reject, as having no foundation in 
fact, such popular beliefs as that the swarms of Mosquitoes that sometimes 
appear on the Persian coast, have been carried by the wind 200 miles 
across the Gulf from the Arabian shore; albeit you must be prepared to 
hear this belief quoted as an established fact, even by European residents. 
' Gnats or Mosquitoes, ed. 2. London (1902) 112, 113. 
