A series of laboratory experiments was performed to help explain why few unfed, parous An. culicifacies females are routinely collected in nature, An. culicifacies was observed to have a pregravid phase requiring a 2nd blood meal to initiate oogensis beyond the resting ovarian stage 11b, with about half of a newly emerged cohort taking their initial blood meal on the 1st and 2nd nights after emergence. Oviposition activity in the insectary was essentially bimodal with peaks occurring after dusk and during and during dawn. Females refed the night of 1st oviposition, although those not offered a blood meal survived until the following evening without sugar or water. These data were used to calculate the proportion of unfed females expected to be collected in afternoon resting samples during summer. The observed proportion was considerably less than the expected proportion using the calculation procedures of Colless (1958) and Krafsur (1977).