312 ' THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



normally-shaped scales. At all events, it offers nothing tangible or 

 definable, being present more or less in all species. 



The incorrect use of the term metatarsus has been corrected by Mr. 

 Theobald in his latest volume, but, unfortunately, not uniformly so, so 

 that the reader is often at a loss to know to which joint a certain number 

 refers, thus greatly increasing the difficulty of this already too much 

 involved subject. 



We regret to be obliged to call attention to an important error in the 

 otherwise excellent work of Dr. Goeldi. That author figures the eggs of 

 Mansonia titillans from photographs. This constitutes the only reference 

 published to the life-history of this interesting species, and is the only 

 contribution to the life-history of it or its allies. Dr. Goeldi's observa- 

 tions have been widely quoted, and it is generally supposed, in 

 consequence, that Manso7iia eggs are of fusiform shape and deposited 

 singly. It is, however, clearly to be seen from the figures of the adult on 

 Dr. Goeldi's plate, that the species he had under observation could not 

 have been a Manso?iia, owing to the long tapering extensile abdomen 

 there clearly shown, characteristic of yEdes ( sensu nostrum), while the 

 abdomen of Ma7isonia titillans is blunt and non-extensile. This type of 

 egg is also characteristic of yEdes^ and leaves the early history of 

 Alansonia entirely unknown. We have reason to suspect that the larvae 

 of this group, when known, will be found generally similar to those of 

 Tceniorhynchiis (se?isu Theobaldi)^ that is, they probably feed permanently 

 in mud at the bottom of swamps, attached to air-bearing roots, and the 

 eggs are probably laid in a boat-shaped mass. 



Finally, we must notice A7iopheles perplexe7is, Ludlow, recently 

 described as from Pennsylvania. We decline to recognize this as an 

 American species, since it is unreasonable to suppose such a form would 

 have remained undiscovered, whereas the chance of its being of foreign 

 origin is probable. The North American species of Anophelines are few 

 and of generally wide distribution, whereas those of the Philippines are 

 many, nor are the species there at all well known, nor their range of 

 variation j^roperly studied. Miss Ludlow receives frequent consignments 

 of mosquitoes from the army surgeons, not only in the United States, but 

 more frequently from the Philippines. Her method of keeping them in 

 uniform pill-boxes, loose in cotton, with the data written upon the covers, 

 lends itself easily to error, from the facility with which covers might be 

 accidentally transposed without the change being suspected. 



