244 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, '09 



Ground color rather dirty creamish brown ; a narrow, uneven dor- 

 sal brownish line border, producing a striking heart-shaped appear- 

 ance; a number of small median brownish points interior to this. 

 Venter paler, sternum light bluish green, flat subcordate. 



Legs and mandibles green, tibia and metatarsus somewhat lighter. 

 All legs moderately slender, armed with numerous long but weak 

 spines ; tibia I. with eight spines, metatarsus I. with ten, arranged in 

 series of two each ; tibia II. with six spines below, also in pairs. 

 Length, 10 mm. 



Habitat. Muir Woods, Marin County, California. 



Described from a single specimen, a female, collected by 

 Mr. L. E. Munier of San Francisco, to whom I take pleasure 

 in dedicating this dainty species. 



It may prove to be M. pictilis Banks, but I am satisfied from 

 a comparison with specimens of that species from the type 

 locality (Palo Alto, Santa Clara County), that it is suffici- 

 ently distinct. By the structure of the epigynum it also comes 

 close to Misumena importuna Keyserling, described from San 

 Mateo County. 



Thanatus coloradensis Keyserling. 



This species is evidently well distributed throughout Cali- 

 fornia, particularly in the southern parts. It was originally 

 described from Colorado. It might be called the "hedge spi- 

 der" in the San Joaquin Valley, as it is everywhere abundant 

 there in such situations. I have taken it at Lindsay, in the 

 station there, Porterville, Bakersfield and also have it from 

 Coalinga (Fresno County). It not only lives on plants, but 

 is also frequently found in the corners of porches, the web 

 being not unlike that of Pholcus phalangoides Fuess. Banks 

 (Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., vol III, p. 352, 1904) records it from 

 Claremont and Zebra (Madera County). 



ADVICES to the States Department from Consul General Guenther 

 at Frankfort, indicate that a real preventive of mosquitoes has been 

 found. He says: "The director of fisheries at Diebrich, has, after ex- 

 periments covering a period of fourteen years, found that the most 

 reliable means against mosquitoes in stagnant waters is the growing 

 of the various kinds of the semi-tropical plant arzola. 



"The plant suffocated all the mosquito larvae below and prevented 

 the living insects from depositing their eggs in the water." 



