482 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Miss McCracken has observed the oviposition and we quote the following 

 from her manuscript notes : 



" On June 7 at 6.45 a. m., in a tub that had been placed by a hedge in the 

 Mariposa yards, on the University campus, I discovered a female C. incidens in 

 the act of ovipositing. About half of the batch had been deposited. The female 

 rested lightly on the surface of the water, with fore and middle pairs of legs well 

 spread out, wings in resting position ; the hind legs approached each other at the 

 distal ends of the tibial, the tarsal joints spread out from this point in a A-shaped 

 manner, within which enclosure the egg-mass was shaped. The eggs came forth 

 one by one, the narrower end first. Each egg was ejected upward, sliding into an 

 erect position by the side of its neighbors, the abdomen then moved slightly to 

 one side, so that the next egg deposited took its place by the side of the previous 

 one. The first egg deposited stood alone, forming the end of the boat-shaped 

 mass. The second two stood side by side, forming an angle with this one; a 

 third group of three increased the length of the base of the triangle. The rest 

 of the mass became irregularly four, five, or six eggs in a row, the number be- 

 ginning to decrease at the 22d row. The last row was rounded off with three 

 eggs. When completed the mass contained two hundred and seventy-five eggs. 

 One egg followed the other without any perceptible lapse of time. Within two 

 minutes ovipositing was completed and the adult flew. The mass of eggs was 

 at first snow white and continued so for three-quarters of an hour. At 7 a. m. 

 it turned a light greenish-gray and gradually but quickly changed to brown, as- 

 suming the permanent dark brown at 8 a. m., one and three-quarters hours after 

 being deposited. Upon several later occasions, I have found both incidens and 

 tarsalis depositing as early as 5 a. m. and the masses of white eggs floating on 

 the water at this time showed that oviposition had taken place some time before. 

 " The eggs procured on the morning of the 7th were placed in a shallow glass 

 dish with Avater from a neighboring pool. They were hatched on the morning 

 of the 9th. The average noonday temperature of the water in the laboratory'- at 

 this time was 18^ C. The first larval skin was cast on the 12th at noon, second 

 moult on the 17th between 9 a. m. and noon. On the morning of the 23d several 

 pupffi appeared in the jar and other pupce irregularly for several days following. 

 On the morning of the 25th the first adults appeared. Pupation and emergence 

 of adults continued until the morning of the 29th. Under laboratory' con- 

 ditions, therefore, the egg stage had occupied two days, first larval stage two 

 days, second larval stage five days, third [and fourth] larval stage seven days, 

 pupal stage two days. This gives the minimum time in each stage. All indi- 

 viduals hatched at the same time, all cast the first larval skin within thirty or 

 forty minutes of each other, all cast the second larval skin within an hour or 

 two of each other. The cast of the third larval skin and emergence of adult took 

 place irregularly from one to five days apart. This irregularity seems to be not 

 entirely a laboratory condition, Aedes quaylei being the only species the indi- 

 viduals of which under natural conditions have appeared to have developed 

 stage by stage simultaneously." 



W^estern coast of North America and the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to 

 Canada. We have seen no specimens from Mexico, though it must occur on the 

 northern boundary at least. It extends well into Canada in British Columbia, 

 though we have no far northern records. 



Las Vegas Hot Springs, New Mexico, August 12 (H. S. Barber) ; Pecos, New 

 Mexico, June 26 (T. D. A. Cockerell) ; Santa Fe, New Mexico, July (T. D. A. 

 Cockerell) ; Beulah, New Mexico, July 15 (T. D. A. Cockerell) ; Flagstaff, 

 Arizona, July 6, August 4 (H. S. Barber) ; Grand Caiion, Arizona, May (H. G. 

 Dyar) ; Andamana, Arizona, May 7, 1903 (H. S. Barber) ; Williams, Arizona, 



