90 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. xn. 



In Insect Life for October, 1891, Mr. D. W. Coquillett, writing 

 from Los Angeles, Cal., under date of June 8, 1891, says : " All of 

 the authors which I have been able to consult upon the habits of 

 Histeridge (Packard, Harris, Le Baron, and Horn) state that these 

 insects live in excrements, in decayed animal or vegetable matter, 

 beneath the bark of trees, in ants' nests, and so on, but none of them 

 even so much as hint at their predaceous habits. A few weeks ago I 

 saw an adult Hister sexstrlatus Lee. attack a nearly full grown larva of 

 Agrods ypsilon Rott., seizing it with its jaws as a cat would a rat and 

 holding on despite the attempts of the cut-worm to escape. This was 

 late in the afternoon of a cloudy day, and as my time was limited, I 

 placed both specimens in my cyanide bottle, where the unequal com- 

 bat soon terminated." 



After an examination of the short-legged Histers one is inclined to 

 the opinion that they stand far greater chance of catching fly larvas in 

 manure, for instance, than the more active caterpillars of Lepidoptera, 

 and perhaps this accounts for the few observations that have been 

 recorded on the subject. 



In conclusion I wish to thank both Mr. Schaeffer and Mr. Leng for 

 passing upon my Hister interri/ptiis, and Dr. Dyar for examining the 

 caterpillar. 



Class I, Hexapoda. 



Order IV, DIPTERA. 



THE LIFE HISTORY OF CULEX VARIPALPUS 

 COQUILLETT. 



By Harrison G. Dyar, A.M., Ph.D., 



Washington, D. C. 

 (Plate III.) 



As previously reported (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., VI, 39, 1904), I 

 found this mosquito in eastern British Columbia. It was described 

 from Arizona, so the range seems to be up the Western slope of the 

 Rocky Mountain chain. It is a single brooded species, most nearly 

 allied to C. atropalpus Coq. The eggs are laid scattered, singly, 

 adhering to objects at the side of or under the water, but not definitely 



