309 



the act of biting. In some cases the specimen succumbed to the fumes 

 without relaxing its hold and had to be pried off. I took a single 

 female on a window in the Natural History Building at Urbana July 



^5. 1915- 



PSEUDOCUIJCOIDKS GRISKUS Co([uillett 



Ceratopogon griseus Coquillett, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 23, 1901, p. 602. 



A single specimen of this species was taken biting, on the bank of 

 Sangamon River near White Heath on May 9. 



I have a suspicion that the species which I described as P. major* 

 may be synonymous with griseus, but desire to obtain further material 

 before definitely deciding, as I am of the opinion that there are several 

 closely allied species in this genus, the differentiation of which will 

 require careful study of a large amount of material. 



There is no previous record of griseus biting man. 



Ceratopogon perEGrinus Johannsen 



July 7, while collecting on tree trunks and limbs after a period of 

 rain, I discovered a dead worm lodged on a branch of a cypress tree, 

 its location and condition indicating that it had been dropped by a bird. 

 When first seen there were several specimens of Ceratopogon pere- 

 grimis engaged in feeding upon it in company with a species of 

 Aphiochceta and a female of Lonchcca polita Say. This occurred about 

 noon, and about a dozen specimens in all were taken. One specimen 

 that had just arrived and had only begun to feed, had the abdomen 

 normal in size, but those that had been feeding for some time had the 

 abdomen greatly distended. It was observed that all the specimens 

 were females, and in one case the insect was seen inserting its probos- 

 cis in the minute drops of moisture on the leaves. 



This species is very common both indoors and outdoors through- 

 out the locality collected over, but no records of feeding habits other 

 than the above have been obtained. An attempt was made to ascertain 

 if the species would bite man by confining the females on the bare skin 

 of the arm, but although this method has proven successful with some 

 Simuliid(C that are not particularly prone to that habit it was unsuc- 

 cessful W'ith peregriniis. It may be of interest to mention that attempts 

 to persuade several species of Forciporuyia to bite by allowing them 

 to settle on the hands and arm and also by confining them on the skin 

 by inverting a vessel over them, proved failures. I have not discovered 

 any species of this genus attacking man or cattle. 



*Loc. cit., p. 311. 



