xxxiii, '22] ENTOMOLOCICAI, MCVYS 121 



clothing. Under such conditions practically all insects with biting 

 mouthparts beetles, grasshoppers, the larger caterpillars, and even 

 Dipterous larvae (Tipulidae, Tabanidae) will make use of their man- 

 dibles, but they will hardly ever attack spontaneously. 



In August, "1918, at Princeton, New Jersey, I was frequently com- 

 pelled, through asthmatic attacks, to sit down or. certain low stone 

 walls forming the border of the university campus and shaded by maple 

 and sycamore trees which were badly infested with Aphids. On such 

 an occasion I suddenly felt a painful bite or sting on the wrist of the 

 left hand which was on the stone. Looking for the cause, 1 discovered 

 on the hand the larva of the lace-winged fly, L'hrysapa spec., commonly 

 called Aphis-lion, which insect had sunk both its long, hollow mandibles 

 deep into the skin, as if for sucking, and when being removed, was not 

 at all willing to give up. The larva had, apparently, dropped from one 

 of the trees, and finding itself hungry, proceeded, in the absence of 

 aphids, to attack the next best living prey it could get hold of. A few 

 hours later the same thing was experienced a second time. Again 1 

 had placed my hand on the stone; after a few minutes a painful prick 

 was felt, the cause of which was found to be an aphis-lion sitting on 

 the upper side of the hand, the mandibles deeply inserted. Whether it 

 had climbed on the hand or dropped from the tree above I was unable 

 to ascertain. The specimens were greenish with black markings, but 

 were not preserved. 



This observation appears to show that Clirysopit larvae will occa- 

 sionally attack man spontaneously and thus assume the role of a facul- 

 tative parasite. WERNER MARCHAND, Mendham, New Jersey. 



Note on Abundance of Mosquitoes (Dip., Culicidae). 



Mr. George C. Shupee, Federal Game Warden, has sent in an inter- 

 esting note on a plague of mosquitoes on the north Texas coast which 

 should be made ava lable to entomologists. His account dated High 

 Island, Texas, Oct. 29, 1921, is substantially as follows : 



Old residents say they never were so bad before, millions and mil- 

 lions of them; so many perched on the automobile that one could not 

 tell there was a glass in the back of the car. They have killed lots of 

 cotton-tail rabbits, and every now and then meadowlarks and other 

 birds are found dead, apparently from the ravages of the mosquitoes. 

 The stock have either gone to the high ridges or come to the gulf where 

 they wade out deep. A large boar hog appeared to go crazy on account 

 of their attacks; he ran into the gulf and swam out about 1 '/> miles, and 

 was given up; he disappeared from sight time and time again in the 

 surf, but finally he came back in. Those hunters who are going in after 

 ducks surely earn them, wearing heavy leather gloves and stiff canvas 

 coat, with mosquito net over bead ; despite all that the pests still bite, 

 actually biting through the glove. I never experienced them so bad. Some 

 days ago a norther blew them out into the gulf; they were drowned and 

 washed into shore, and from Bolivar to Sabine, about 75 miles, a strip 

 four inches wide and two deep was left along the beach. Notwithstand- 

 ing this occurrence there remain apparently just as many of the mos- 

 quitoes as before. 



Most of us have heard of windrows of brine-flies (Bphydra) being 

 cast up on the beaches of certain western lakes, but probably few have 

 imagined that mosquitoes ever tk'.mvd in a similar phenomenon. -W. I.. 

 MI-ATKK, L'. S. I'iologiral Survey. Washington, I >. C. 



