BIOLOGY OF PHILIPPINE CULICIDJ3. 247 



OVIPOSITION. 



A female of S. samarensis Liadl. was observed at 11.30 in the morning 

 walking around inside a bamboo cup half full of water and hung in a 

 betel-niit grove. Upon closer observation she was seen to be in the act 

 of egg-laj'ing, the process being as follows: The abdomen is depressed 

 or recurved until the tip comes in contact with the surface of the vessel, 

 the insect walldng around in this position until the abdominal cerci 

 -touch the moist surface. She stops and immediately deposits a single 

 egg in the slime just above tlie water. This operation is repeated at in- 

 tervals of about half a minute, but she may stop for two or three minutes 

 after having laid ten or twelve eggs. In this ease she rests, head up, 

 upon the fore and mid legs, tlie liind legs being kept in motion. The 

 female, during egg-laying, always assumes a position in which the head 

 is farther from the water than the posterior extremity of the body. 



The eggs are pure white when laid, but in less than an hour change 

 to a dark, bronzy-brown. The surface is covered with irregular,, elon- 

 gated hexagonal air cells. (PI. VII, fig. 1.) The eggs are evidently 

 cemented to the slime, because it is not possible to remove them without 

 the adhesion of a small piece of the slime or plant fiber. 



Larva: Length 9 to 10 millimeters. (PI. VII, fig. 2.) The larvae of S. sama- 

 rensis Ludl. differ when full grown from those of 8. persistans Banks in being 

 clothed with a greater number of quadrifid sets upon the abdominal segments, 

 and by the presence upon the surface of the anal tracheal gills of a regularly 

 arranged series of very minute, annular spots. This is found in the full grown 

 larvae of the species and is the surest means of differentiation. 



The pecten scales are twelve to fourteen on each side, while those of the 

 lateral comb of the eighth segment vary in the same specimen, there being eight 

 on one side and ten on the other in several specimens examined. The lesser 

 number has been found always on the right side. (PI. VII, fig. 3.) 



The time required from the egg to the pupa is five to seven days, although 

 larvEs kept withovit food have lived 15 days. 



Pupa: The pupa of this species differs from that of the preceding in the 

 following particulars : The secondary branches of the compound setse of the first 

 abdominal segment are much longer, the pinnurse have longer fringes and their 

 surfaces are not covered with pubescence; they are also longer and narrower and 

 their apices are subacute while those of 8. persistatis Banks are rounded. The 

 respiratory siphon is rather slender, its apex being nearly circular. 



The pupal stage lasts two to three days. The pupse behave very 

 much as those of the other species except that they swim with a longer 

 stroke of the abdomen, thereby making fewer strokes to the minute. 



Adult: This species has been described by Ludlow." 



"Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. (Sejit., 1903), 11; Can. Ent. (1904), 36, 71; Idem 

 (1905), 37, 134. 



