546 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50' 



several hundred males. Copulation took place most frequently be- 

 tween 9 and 9.15, but matings were observed both earlier and later. 

 The females entered the swarm from beneath, when they were seized 

 by one or more males. Union takes place "face to face," the pair 

 flying obliquely upward for several yards. Then the pair would 

 either separate promptly or swing out end to end and struggle to 

 disengage themselves. In this latter case both of them could be 

 seen to jerk violently and rapidly in their efforts to free themselves, 

 and the pair would slowly rise, but make no appreciable progress in 

 either direction. When two males seized a female the group would 

 rise straight into the air, apparently engaged in a violent struggle, 

 one of the males finally uniting with the female or all of them sepa- 

 rating. In one case four individuals rose thus, scrambling over 

 each other, so to speak. The swarm was watched until 9.30, when 

 the twilight was already quite deep; copulation appeared to have 

 ceased and the swarms were gradually breaking up. 



AEDES CURRIEI Coquillett 



This species is far less generally distributed over the prairie than 

 the preceding three species, and appears to be a straggler from the 

 prairie regions farther south. The larvae appear somewhat later 

 than those of A. spencer i, and in consequence the adults appear a 

 little later. The larvae were found in large numbers in a small 

 swamp in the Souris River valley about three miles west of Oxbow. 

 They were also found in small numbers in several permanent ditches 

 along the railroad. At Carndufr they were found in a ditch of alka- 

 line water. In the swamp first mentioned there were full-grown 

 larvae and pupae on May 30, but young larvae in the first and second 

 stages were by far the most numerous. 



AEDES CAMPESTRIS Dyar and Knab 



Eight specimens of this species were taken on June 18 and 19. 

 The females came to bite in the daytime ; the males were obtained by 

 beating bushes at the head of a ravine. It appears to be rare, and 

 no larvae were obtained. Mr. T. N. Willing found this species at 

 Regina, Carndufr, and Ou'apelle. 



AEDES FUSCUS Osten Sacken 



A few larvae of this species were obtained on two occasions, once 

 in a permanent ditch and again in the shallow water at the mouth 

 of a culvert, the remains of a stream of snoAv-water. The first adults, 

 issued from the pupae on June 17. 



