Notes on the Commoner Species 177 



away. I think only howardii were in the gathering. 

 A mixed swarm once attacked the horse while the 

 Doctor and I were collecting in the woods, so that 

 Sallie, almost frantic, started for home, and we came 

 near having to take a tramp of several miles. The 

 bites do not swell much, as far as my experience 

 goes, but the puncture feels like a pin-prick. 



P. howardii is southern in range, from south of the 

 Potomac to Texas, while ciliata is found as far north 

 as New York. In Baton Rouge the former is the 

 common species, though we usually took the larvae 

 in conjunction with those of ciliata. The adults of 

 both species are generally located in the woods, and 

 I do not know that they fly far as a rule. Still, I 

 have seen as many as thirty howardii in a drug store 

 in the evening, evidently attracted by the syrup 

 spilled on the soda counter, as they greedily sucked 

 this whenever the opportunity offered, and the at- 

 tendant said that at this time of year (July) they 

 were a nuisance, always coming about the stand. 

 They seldom attacked him and would not feed on me 

 in the store, though they did so readily enough in 

 the laboratory. 



The Psorophora larvae are immense for wigglers, and 

 their size renders them readily recognisable. They 

 are predaceous, and also cannibalistic. Those with 

 which the Doctor first experimented were taken from 

 a small body of water about ten by four feet and 

 three inches deep in the middle, located in a de- 

 pressed portion of the bed of the ditch in the botanical 

 garden of the Louisiana State University. On Sep- 

 tember 3 it rained, forming this pool ; on the 8th it 



