INSECUTOR INSCITI.^ MENSTRUUS 67 



"On March 13, 1915, about 3 p. m., in one of the cane-fields 

 of The Ogle, I was attacked by several M. titillans, of which 

 I secured two. The day before I had also got one at the same 

 estate. On the morning of the 17th one of those captured on 

 the 12th oviposited between 6.20 and 6.35, and I was for- 

 tunate enough to witness the act. About 6 a. m. I looked 

 through my three glass jars to ascertain if any of the mos- 

 quitoes had oviposited, but was unable to see properly, as the 

 light was not yet strong enough. I again examined the glasses 

 at 6.25, and, not finding one of the mosquitoes, began to think 

 she might be lying dead upon the Pistia or upon the water, 

 whither I then glanced and soon discerned her perched motion- 

 less upon a Pistia leaf which was resting upon the surface of 

 the water. But where was her abdomen? Thrust beneath 

 the leaf ! In this way was confirmed my surmise that titillans 

 submerges at least her abdomen when ovipositing. Again, 

 how unwonted was her attitude ! She was perched, or as it 

 were, between two Pistia leaves, resting upon the one with her 

 fore-legs, and upon the other with her mid and hind legs and 

 also the tips of her wings. Her hind legs were extended 

 well back, so that they practically lay along the surface of the 

 leaf, and her wings were held somewhat apart, this mode of 

 holding legs and wings enabling her to thrust her abdomen 

 well under the leaf. When I first saw her she had deposited 

 only the farther third of her egg-mass. The lower half of 

 her abdomen was submerged and bent or curved back, the 

 segments somewhat extended, and was being moved slowly 

 from side to side, the eggs seeming to issue forth in rapid 

 succession and to be as rapidly set up each in its place. How 

 the terminal organs manipulated the eggs I could not determine, 

 owing to the insect being a little ill-placed for accurate obser- 

 vation in this direction, and to the large number of glistening 

 air-bubbles entangled in the abdominal scales and on the leaf 

 itself. According as the cluster enlarged in her direction, she 

 drew her abdomen more and more up, so that when she fin- 

 ished at 6.35 not much more than the tip of it was curved 

 under the leaf. When she first started more than half of her 



