218 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



The following papers have been presented for publication : 



THE EGG AND YOUNG LARVA OF CULEX PERTURBANS 



WALKER. 



By HARRISON G. DYAR AND ROLLA P. CURRIK. 



Among the mosquitoes which have been found to occur more 

 or less commonly on Plummer's Island, Maryland, the headquar 

 ters of the Washington Biologists' Field Club, is this large and 

 easily recognized ring-legged species. Four adult specimens 

 were captured there on -August 23 of the past summer by one of 

 the writers (Mr. Currie), but were not preserved alive. They 

 were determined by Mr. D. W. Coquillett who mentioned the 

 desirability of obtaining living examples in order, if possible, to 

 secure eggs and larvae therefrom. 



Accordingly Mr. Currie made another trip to the island on the 

 afternoon of August 25, remaining there till the following morn 

 ing. This trip resulted in the capture, alive, of three adult 9 9 

 which came to bite, one in the house about nine o'clock that 

 evening at a lighted table and the other two on the porch about 

 5.30 in the morning. The first specimen, to be alluded to as 

 " No. i," was by mistake caught in a cyanide vial, but when re 

 cognized as perturbans was quickly removed. It recovered in 

 a very few minutes and was permitted to bite, which it did with 

 out hesitation when the captor's arm was placed over the mouth 

 of the bottle in which it was confined. Of the other two speci 

 mens, one (No. 2) was already gorged with blood when captured, 

 and the other (No. 3) was allowed to bite the hand a few hours 

 later, an opportunity of which it eagerly availed itself. 



Each mosquito was placed in a wide-mouth bottle, one-half to 

 two-thirds full of water, taken from a rain-water barrel in which 

 Culex pipiens and associated species were breeding in numbers. 

 The water was, of course, carefully strained before using to ex 

 clude all pipiens and other larvae. 



On the second of September mosquito No. 2 was resting on 

 the surface of the water as if preparing to deposit eggs. The 

 following morning it was still in this position, but no eggs had 

 been laid. Jn the bottle with No. 3, however, and floating 

 upon the water, was a boat-shaped mass of eggs of a pale 

 whitish color. Very shortly the eggs began to turn dark and 

 before noon were brown-black. 



No further observations were made until September 6, at 

 which time the eggs were still unhatched. Mosquitoes Nos. i 

 and 2 were dead on the surface of the water. No eggs had 

 been deposited by No. 2, but beside No. \ were a few irregu- 



