PSYCHE, 
[August 
96 
the sides of the hole. It takes considerable disturbance to drive them out and 
they then fly slowly out of the hole and sometimes to some other nearby hole. 
I’sually however, they alight in the immediate vicinity of their hole, upon the 
ground or very near it, and after a very short interval fly back into the hole. 
At twilight the adults may be seen dancing in a small cloud close to the mouth 
of the crab-hole. ilr. Ilusck, who has had many opportunities to observe 
Dcinoccritcs in the West Indies, has found that the species swarms in the 
morning twilight as well as in the evening. As with other mosquitoes, the 
swarming indicates the time of sexual activity and l\Ir. Busck has frequently 
noted copulation at such times. 
Dr. Grabham states of Dcinoccritcs ‘‘only comes out to feed at night, is 
a voracious bloodsucker" (Theobald. INIonogr., v. 2. p. 356). In contradiction 
Theobald in v. 3. ]). 279 of his Monograph quotes Dr. Low who "could never 
get them to bite. In many dissected from Calliagua, a village in St. Mncent, 
I never saw any traces of blood in their stomachs." In the writer's experience, 
Dcinoccritcs could never be induced to bite nor would it even alight upon the 
person. Mr. Rusck is also quite positive that it does not molest man. In 
Trinidad numerous crab-holes, each with its swarm of Dcinoccritcs, are found 
in the immediate vicinity of the houses — often within a few feet. Still 
these mosquitoes never enter the house nor is anyone ever bitten by tbem. 
Perhaps the larvae even serve a useful j)urpose in preventing the water in the 
crab-holes from becoming offensive. 
M'hile this mosquito is remarkable in many ways there are no structural 
characters which, in the writer's opinion, justify the creation of a distinct sul)- 
familv for it as has been done by iMiss E. G. Mitchell in Psyche, v. 13, p. 19. 
The unusual length of the second antennal joint, brought forward as a dis- 
covery of Mr. Coquillett, has already been commented on at some length by 
Theobald ( iMonogr. v. 2. p. 215-217; v. 3. p. 275-277 ). 
The larval peculiarities of Dcinoccritcs pointed out by Miss Mitcbell are 
merely an ami)lification of structures present in other Culicid larvae. The 
groove in which the mandibles move is liy no means peculiar to Dcinoccritcs 
but common to all mosquito larvae and present in the larvae of many other 
Xemocera. To show the correspondence of parts and their modificatiou ventral 
views of the heads of Dcinoccritcs cancer and Jauthinosoma jamaicensis are 
here figured. The integument of the ventral surface of the head is transversely 
folded in the region of the mouth and forms a ridge e.xtending entirely across 
the head. In the depression behind this ridge lies the mouth with its aj)- 
