174 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. xii. 



As to Culex cantans Meig. — ; This species is a prolific source of 

 confusion. I notice that the dissected larva sent in by Mr. Johannsen, 

 and presumably the original of his figures (Bull. 68, N. Y. State Mus., 

 420, 1903, pi. 45) is not cantans, but canadensis. His figures should 

 be cited under ca?iadensis, but the character used in the synoptic table 

 (p. 416) is correct for cantans. Add to this the confusion noted above 

 between vittatns and cantans and the two very different larv?e produc- 

 ing apparently indistinguishable adults, noted by Mr. Knab and myself 

 (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., VI, 143, 1904). 



Identity of Culex reptans Meig. — If the European reptans 

 (^nenwrosus Meig.) really exists in America, it is the form trichurtis 

 Dyar, described in this issue of the Journal, to judge by Meinert's 

 figures (Vid. Selsk. Skr., 6, III, 4, PI. I, figs. 17-19, 1886), and not 

 either of the three forms called impiger Walk., repta7is Meig., and 

 punctor Kirby in my paper on British Columbian mosquitoes (Proc. 

 Ent. Soc. Wash., VI, 37, 1904). The four American forms are very 

 closely allied as adults, though th,e larvae are distinct enough. Tri- 

 chitnis differs from Meinert's figures of neviorosus in that the tufts on 

 the tube are more numerous and multiple. Meinert figures but two 

 single dorsal hairs, while trichurus has a double row of about six tufts. 



Wholesale slaughter. — A large colony of Culex sollicitans Walk, 

 hatched on the salt marsh near Noyes Beach, R. I., about June 29, 

 following rain. By July 5, the marsh had gone dry and myriads of 

 dead larvse were observed. They had gathered in the lowest depres- 

 sions, and in one wheel rut their bodies covered the ground in a 

 solid mass two inches wide and five or six feet long. 



A CASE OF ANEiNiOTROPiSM.* — It may be worth while to place on 

 record the following instance, which was sent me by the Rev. C. C. 

 Carpenter, of Andover, Mass., who under date of April 20, 1896, 

 wrote me as follows : 



"A friend was down at Marshfield or Scituate the other day, and 

 sitting on the dunes near the water watched for hours a steady and 

 large stream of small flies going northeast, against the wind, for hours 

 and hours, in perfect order and symmetry. He is curious to know 

 whether they were migrating — or what. I suppose you know." 

 Unfortunately no specimens were sent me, so that the species is un- 

 known. — A. S. Packard, Providence, R. I. 



* Prof. W. M. Wheeler has noticed this phenomenon in Bibio and also in Chi- 

 >-oiio»ius ( Archiv fiir Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen, VIII, p. 373, 1S99. ) 



