4 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan., '06 



strokes, the extremities of the legs are widely separated, and 

 at the other, the femora are crossed, those of the second pair 

 crossing below the third. On land, however, Ranatra runs 

 quite rapidly, but the ungainly length of its legs seems to trip 

 it up when in a hurry. 



The meagerness of information regarding these habits has 

 led me to the studies outlined above. It is to be hoped that 

 the rising generation of entomologists may give a little less 

 time to hair-splitting classifications and devote its energies to 

 investigations of habits and life-histories of other than eco- 

 nomically important groups, or than those which, like butter- 

 flies, are largely aesthetic ; and to such lovers of the insect-folk 

 do I look for further light on these highly interesting but 

 financially unremunerative subjects. 



Notes on the Egg-laying Habits of Culex curriei Coq. 

 BY H. J. QUAYLE, Ames, Iowa. 



During the past summer the writer was engaged in mosquito 

 control work along the portion of the San Francisco bay shore 

 extending from San Mateo to South San Francisco. The ter- 

 ritory contiguous to the marsh here has long been noted for 

 its abundant supply of mosquitoes, and the species giving the 

 bulk of the trouble was Culex curriei Coq. 



Early in the campaign, my attention was directed to the fact 

 that larvae were appearing exclusively in pools that were 

 reached only by the monthly high tides, and which were dry 

 for a portion of each month. This led me to infer that, like 

 the salt marsh species in New Jersey, this species chose the 

 mud of the drying pools rather than water in which to lay its 

 eggs. Consequently mud was taken from such pools and 

 submerged with ordinary sea water when, in the course of two 

 or three days, wrigglers invariably appeared. Another 

 method of studying this egg-laying habit consisted in sinking 

 ordinary soap boxes, with the bottoms first removed, to a 

 depth of two or three inches in the mud of pools, where larvae 

 were likely to appear. These boxes were thoroughly screened 

 at the top to prevent the entrance of adults, and were kept 



