a handbook of the mosquitoes of north america - Systematic Catalog ...

CULICINI 117
anteantennal tuft long and multiple. The abdomen stout ; lateral
hairs on the first to fifth segments double, on the sixth, single. Eighth
segment bears a lateral comb of many scales in a triangular patch.
Anal segment longer than wide; dorsal plate reaching fully two-thirds
of the way down the sides; dorsal tuft consists of a long hair and a
brush on either side; ventral brush well developed with short tufts
preceding the barred area to near the base. Anal gills ensiform, as
long as or sometimes much longer than the segment. -Air-tube taper-
ing, three times as long as wide; pecten reaching just beyond the
first third of the tube; tuft large, situated beyond the pecten.
This species is widely distributed over the United States
from the Gulf of Mexico to Southern Canada and west to the
Pacific Coast in its northern range.
It is one of our most common Aedcs species. The larvae are
found in early spring, breeding in woodland pools filled by
melting snows or spring rains. In general they prefer pools
with a bottom of dead and decaying leaves though they are
found in roadside puddles, spring fed pools, cranberry bogs,
pools in open sphagnum bogs, wooded swamps and open meacl-
ows. The species hibernates in the egg stage and the young
larvae are found when the ponds are still ice covered. 1Vhether
this species is single brooded or has a second brood in a season
is still doubtful. Undoubtedly the great majority of eggs hatch
in early spring, the adults appearing in maximum abunclance
in late h!lay and early June.
At Ithaca I have obtained the larvae in considerable numbers
in mid-summer from artificial pools made in dry surfaced
sphagnum bogs. Whether these late appearing larvae are from
eggs laid the previous season or from recently deposited eggs
is not known. The adults do not wander far from their larval
habitat. They readily attack especially towards the evening and
dften prove a serious pest in woodlancls and forests. The)
have not been taken in houses.
AEDES COMMUNIS DeGeer
Czzlex comnzz~tzis DeGeer, Mem. des Ins., 6, 3 16. 1776.
Czflex P~EP~ZO~OSZLS Meigen, Syst. Beschr. Zweifl. Ins. 1, 4. 1818