MOSQUITOS COLLECTED IN PALESTINE. 391 



difficult to secure many more, even though in one case twenty buckets of water were 

 examined in succession. When disturbed they evidently move away from the 

 vicinity of the opening. As far as I could judge, from a number of observations 

 made, the larvae of A. bifurcatus living in these situations are chiefly surface feeders, 

 existing upon debris which may be washed in by the rains. 



I successfully reared adults from the egg by keeping the larvae in a bowl of clean 

 water and feeding them upon a diet of chopped flies. A few young larvae found 

 on 18th November fed up slowly in the same way, living for pbout two months 

 before pupating. The adults prefer cool and dark places in which to rest during 

 the day, and were not found in any abundance in houses or tents. 



Except for occasional individuals the species is absent from Egypt. Specimens- 

 were obtained in the following localities from sea-level to about 3,000 feet : — 



Palestine : Jerusalem ; Bethlehem ; Jaffa ; Haifa ; Acre ; Nazareth. Syria : 

 Baalbek ; Zahle ; Beirut. 



Anopheles algeriensis, Theo. 



I think this must be the species referred to by previous workers in Palestine as 

 A.fragilis, Theo., or A. aitkeni, James. It does not appear to be very general, and I 

 have no records for Egypt or Cilicia. 



One female was captured on 3rd December 1919 in a tent pitched in the marshes 

 east of Acre ; this had recently sucked blood. On 11th and 12th August 1920 it 

 was found in numbers at Wadi Selhab, a marshy tract about three miles south of 

 Jenin on the Nablus road and over twenty miles from the coast. The females 

 were biting freely at sunset, and some fifty specimens were caught in half an hour. 

 The only other mosquitos seen at the same time were A. hyrcanus and Culex pipiens 

 (one). 



It would appear to breed chiefly in the larger marshes, away from human habita- 

 tions, like A. hyrcanus, and is therefore probably not a frequent carrier of malaria. 

 It has been found in the marshy areas of the Auja valley, between Mulebbis and 

 Jaffa. 



A few specimens were bred from larvae found in a small marsh on the outskirts of 

 Beirut, in September 1919. 



Anopheles hyrcanus, Pall, {sinensis, Wied. ; pseudopictus, Grassi). 



As mentioned above, this species breeds chiefly in the larger marshes and is to be 

 found along the coastal belt of Palestine, at least as far north as Acre. It also occurs 

 in suitable localities inland. I think there is no doubt that it is to be found in Svria 

 and northwards, but I did not meet with it. I believe that up to the present it has 

 not been found in Egypt. 



The adults may oe found nearly all the year round, but in larger numbers in winter 

 and spring. 



Palestine : Marshes in the Auja Valley, near Mulebbis ; Athlit ; the Kishon 

 Plain, from Haifa to Acre ; Wadi Selhab, near Jenin. 



