Notes on the Commoner Species 179 



They mate but once. They bite from two to four 

 times before the first oviposition, at intervals of from 

 two to four days, and once, twice, or even three times, 

 for every batch after that. They will usually feed 

 once before mating; will make a meal the day 

 after emergence and also immediately after laying. 

 Generally they lay two or three batches, but may 

 deposit as many as nine. The first ovulation is from 

 eight to ten days after the first meal, the others two 

 days after a repast. There are from twelve to sixty- 

 five eggs in a batch, the average being thirty-two, 

 usually about two hundred eggs in all. The ova may 

 hatch in the next rain, or even one hundred and sixty- 

 two days after. The larval life is five or six days, 

 the pupal twenty-eight to thirty hours. The larvae 

 will not subsist on vegetable diet, but will eat pro- 

 tozoa. The males issue from one hour to twenty-four 

 hours ahead of the females. These insects will 

 copulate in ten minutes after emergence. The 

 females live from fourteen to twenty-seven days, 

 the males ten to fifteen ; the latter can survive seven 

 days without food or water. 



Psorophora ciliata seems to feed almost always 

 three times before laying, generally at intervals of 

 three days. It usually deposits two batches of from 

 fifteen to thirty eggs, but sometimes four batches; 

 and there have been as many as sixty-three, and 

 as few as five, eggs in a clutch. The first laying is 

 always the smallest, which is not usually the case 

 among mosquitoes. This species, as a rule, seems 

 to feed between depositions but once. Ovulation 

 occurs at intervals of from two to four days. It will 



