Principal household insects of the United States . due to the fact that most entomologistshave a way of saving time by following the observations of older writers. MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 11 This is all well enough where the species and the conditions are identi-cal, but when, as is the case with such an insect as that under observa-tion, the principal observations were made upon a different, thoughcongeneric, species, and in another part of the globe, where climaticand other conditions differ, the custom is unfortunate. There is not, inany of our published works, a thoroughly satisfactory figur
Principal household insects of the United States . due to the fact that most entomologistshave a way of saving time by following the observations of older writers. MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 11 This is all well enough where the species and the conditions are identi-cal, but when, as is the case with such an insect as that under observa-tion, the principal observations were made upon a different, thoughcongeneric, species, and in another part of the globe, where climaticand other conditions differ, the custom is unfortunate. There is not, inany of our published works, a thoroughly satisfactory figure of a well-determined species of mosquito, or of its earlier stages. The statementsquoted in the text-books and manuals date back, in general, to the timeof Reaumur, one hundred and fifty years ago. These observations weremade in the month of May, upon a species {Culex pipiens) which doesnot occur in North America, and in the one locality of Paris, notes made upon (. pungens at Washington possess,therefore, somescientific Fig. 2.—Culex pungens: Egg-mass above in center; young larva, greatly enlarged, at right; younglarvsB, not so much enlarged, below; enlarged eggs above at left (original). The operation of egg-laying was not observed, but it probably takesplace in the very early morning hours. The eggs are laid in the usualboar-shaped mass, just as those of C. pipiens, as described by say boat shaped mass, because that is the ordinary expression. Asa matter of fact, however, the egg masses are of all sorts of most common one is the pointed ellipse, convex below and concaveabove, all the eggs perpendicular, in six to thirteen longitudinal rows,with from .*> or 4 to 40 eggs in a row. The number of eggs in each batchvaries from 200 to 400. As seen from above, the egg-mass is gray brown ;from below, silvery white, the latter appearance being due to the airfilm. It seems impossible to wet these egg masses. They may bepushed under
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectinsectp, bookyear1896
