168 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND. 



Habits of the Adult Female. — The surviving female, four 

 days after the adult stage had been reached, commenced to 

 bite when the bare arm was placed in the cage. -After a short 

 and decided selection of the site of puncture (back of the 

 hand) about two minutes were occupied by haustellation ; 

 the female sucked so vigorously that haemolysed blood (about 

 0-01 minim) was voided at the anus. This was examined as a 

 blood-smea-r made on a slide under an oil-immersion lens ; it 

 revealed the presence of numerous leucocytes and plasmolysed 

 erythrocytes. The bite produced A, small white induration of 

 the skin surrounded by a diffused erythematous patch, and a 

 painful itching for some minutes followed. A period of four 

 days elapsed before a second haustellation took place, and 

 after a further interval of six days a tliird meal of blood was 

 taken. Despite the fact that banana ^and jam were freely 

 offered to the female, as well as a judicious supply of blood, 

 the mosquito died on the sixth day after the third meal, having 

 completed an aerial longevity of 21 days without ovipositing. 



Macroscopic Appearance of Male. — Perhaps the most out- 

 standing feature of the male is its relatively smaller size. With 

 reference to the resting posture, it might be said that the body 

 axis, when the insect is on a wall, forms an angle with the 

 wall of 80 degrees ; when on a horizontal plane the angle 

 meaures about 65 degrees. 



Larva. 

 Macroscopic Appearance and Behaviour. — A large, very 

 dark larva, with very large and pronounced palmate hairs, 

 the latter just discernible to unaided vision under the best 

 illumination (incident obUquely). The chsetotaxy is also 

 rather distinctive. In the living condition, the larva skirts 

 along the surface film of the water by bold lateral strokes of 

 its whole body. 



Characters as seen by an Aplanatic Hand-lens (X 20). — 

 When the larva is held in a column of water by means of a 

 pneumatic dropper and examined either by direct transmitted 

 or reflected light, an excellent view of the palmate hairs is to 

 be had. The chaetotaxy may be studied en masse, but the 

 individual structure of " hairs " can only be appreciated after 

 having made microscopic observations of them. 



Microscopic Structure. — The foUowng descriptions are 

 based on morphological observations made on two larval 



