MOSQUITOES. 185 
robust person may not notice the irritation, or a more deli- 
cate person if asleep; though if weakened by disease, or if 
stung in a highly vascular and sensitive part, such as the eye- 
lid, the bite becomes really a serious matter. Multiply the 
mosquito a thousand fold, and one flees their attacks and 
avoids their haunts as he would a nest of hornets.”’ 
It is perhaps not necessary to introduce this insect, as 
most persons claim a very intimate acquaintance with the 
female mosquito, while they hardly know her more retiring 
husband, who is also more beautiful, both physically and 
morally. There are, however, many peculiar traits m the 
history of this aggressive insect, which but few persons are 
aware of, and at the risk of repeating well-known facts, the 
essential points of its life-history will be given. A glance at 
the illustration (fig. 153) will make some of them quite 
plain. 
Early this spring, 1896, when all plant-life was inthe bonds 
of winter, no insects could be discovered by those whose eyes 
were not trained for seeing such things. Yet a close and 
trained observer could readily discover in sheltered nooks 
and corners, in cellars and stables, under loose boards and 
under stones, a large number of insects that had found win- 
ter quarters in such places. Besides a number of different 
flies and other insects detected in cellars, a few mosquitoes 
could be seen which were pale and by no means such active 
beings as they are later in the season. The last snow, which 
fell towards the end of April, brought with it immense num- 
bers of mosquitoes of a large size and of a pale-brown color 
( Culex consobrinus). The writer counted as many as four to 
twenty-one mosquitoes upon a square yard of level surface. 
In northern latitudes it is not uncommon to find mosquitoes 
even in mid-winter, and thousands appear as soon as the 
sun comes out warm. Many years ago the writer saw in 
February a very large swarm of mosquitoes in Detroit, 
Mich.; they were very annoying for some weeks, when their 
numbers gradually became less. Whence did they come? 
To treat these emigrants in a hospitable manner, an old 
barrel was cut in two and filled with rain-water, to attract 
and give them a home for their offspring. Of course such 
