i9o6 ) KXAB—XOTES OX DEIXOCERITES CAXCER THEOBALD 
95 
NOTES OX DEIXOCERITES CAXCER THEOBALD. 
BY FREDERICK KXAB, WASH IN'GTOX , D. C. 
The writer has had occasion to study this mosquito in the course of his 
work in connection with Dr. L. O. Howard's forthcoming monograph of the 
Culicidae. As a number of incorrect statements have been published about 
Dcinocerites the following observations seem timely. 
Dcinoceritcs cancer was found by tbe writer on both coasts of Costa Rica, 
at Puntarenas on the Pacific side and at Port Limon on the east coast. The 
species was first encountered far u]) the mangrove inlets behind Puntarenas. 
It was established in the holes of a very large and brightly colored species of 
crab ( Cardisoma crassum Smith). These crab-holes were near the head of tide 
water, above overflow, often a considerable distance from the water, and the 
water in them must have been very nearly if not quite fresh. In some of these 
holes on very low ground the water was quite near the surface, and the larvae 
in great numbers and of various sizes, could be seen suspended by the surface 
film. About Puntarenas Dcinoceritcs appeared to be the only species of 
mosquito inhabiting the crab-holes. .\t Port Limon the writer found two other 
species associated with Dcinoceritcs in crab-holes, in fact it was there greatly 
outnumbered by them. One of these species has been recently described by 
Mr. D. M’. Coquillett under the name Tiuolcstes latisquamma and the other he 
referred to Cnlcx scholasticus Theobald.* Dr. M. Grabham has found Cnlc.v 
janitor Theob. associated with Dcinoceritcs in crab-holes in Jamaica ( Theobald, 
Monogr. Cube., v. 3, p, 185). At Port Limon the crab-holes were on a side 
hill, in a cacao orchard at some height above sea-level. The water in them was 
entirely fresh, supplied by a small brook which had worn a channel into the 
stiff clay of the hillside. iMost of these holes went to a great depth to reach 
the water, so that the mosquitoes living in them never see the light until they 
attain the winged state. This record of the occurrence of the larvae of 
Dcinoceritcs in fresh water is not made in contradiction of the jirevious records 
of its occurence in bracki.'^h water. The larva was found in brackish water by 
Dr. H. G. Dyar in southern Florida and by iMr. Busck in the west Indies and 
it would seem that it thrives best in brackish water and there the s])ecies of 
Cnlcx are not associated with it. 
The imagos likewise inhabit the crab-holes and during the day rest upon 
*It is, however, app.-irently not the form so identified hy Dr. Dyar and tlie writer 
(Journ. X. Y. Ent. Soc., xiv. 182, 1906). 
