NOTES OX THE "SCOTS GRAY" MOSQUITO. 



Cule.v Mucidus Alternans, Westwood. 



Plates III— VII. 



By W. R. COLLEDGE. 



{Read before the Roi/at Society of Queensland, 30th May, 1908.) 



This insect is the most conspicuous )t the mosquitoes found 

 in Queensland. Four varieties of large fawn and gray coloured 

 insects are included in the popular name, but the kind I refer to 

 was described by Skuse under the name of Cidex HLtpidosus, but 

 now known as C. Mucidus Alternans. They are handsome 

 insects to an unprejudiced eye. 



The Egg 



is comparatively large, and differs much from those of the com- 

 mon insect. In shape it is like a double cone, partly flattened 

 on one side, as is seen in fig. 1. Jet black in colour, it is invested 

 by a delicate membrane which rises in beaded vesicles upon its 

 surface. Unlike the common variety, whose egg.3 are cemented 

 into a beautiful floating r>ift, these are deposited singly on the 

 surface of the water ; they look like little black granules, if a 

 white surface is beneath them. 



They vary a good deal in number. One lady, who break- 

 fasted on my arm, deposited sixty-four eggs five days afterwards. 

 Another laid one hundred and sixty, seven days after a sanguine 

 feed. 



At first, by the help of the vesicles and adhering film of 

 air, they float, but a little agitation causes them to sink to the 



