474 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



hours. The adults began emerging in ten days from date of oviposition, though 

 an unavoidable lack of food material for a short time may have slightly length- 

 ened the normal time of development." 



The larvae frequent principally ground-pools where their prey occurs in num- 

 bers, and consequently feed mostly on larvae occurring in such situations. Mr. 

 Busck says : 



"... This large yellow species is prevalent on the Zone and comes quickly 

 and unhesitatingly to bite whenever one visits shady places. The predaceous 

 larvae are found quite as commonly in artificial receptacles of water around 

 human habitations as in diallow pools in the woods. The larva is easily 

 recognized by its size and by the peculiar curved position it assumes, looking 

 as if about to spring upon its prey. The larvae are unquestionably beneficial in 

 destroying other mosquitoes, tiiough they are not a dependable factor for their 

 control. They are very voracious during their growth, and they have, like the 

 larvae of Megarhwus, the habit of killing aU surrounding larvae before they 

 pupate, so as to have quiet during the pupal period. In many cases I found 

 Lutzia larvae which had completely cleared the receptacle in which they lived 

 of other mosquito larvae. If the food supply runs short before they are ready for 

 pupation, the Lutzia larvae become cannibalistic, and thus in a measure counter- 

 act the value of the species by materially diminishing their own numbers. 



" The species was bred from the following localities : From hoof -prints in a 

 meadow near Tabernilla, where the larvae were feeding upon those of Urano- 

 fcmia calosomata; from an open lagoon south of San Pablo; from a rusiy iron 

 bucket near a house at Las Cascadas, with no other mosquito larvae present; from 

 a small temporary pool near Bohio, without any other mosquito larvae present ; 

 from old French machinery in the woods south of Tabernilla; here again a few 

 full-grown Lutzia larvae alone remained ; from larvae in an old tin-can near a 

 house in Pedro Miguel, feeding on Stegomyia larvae ; from large unused sugar- 

 boilers near Tabernilla; here the Lutzia larvae were present by the hundreds, 

 preying upon those of Culex coronator. In one of the boilers all the Culex larvae 

 had been eaten and the nearly full-grown Lutzia larvae were feeding upon their 

 weaker companions." 



Mr. Jennings found the larvae in a pool containing large numbers of Culex 

 and Uranotmnia, in a tank associated with Ovlex larvae, and in a hole in the 

 center of a stump containing rank, highly colored water, associated with larvae 

 of Culex. 



Nicaragua to Panama, and probably southward. 



Bluefields, Nicaragua (W. F. Thornton) ; Bocas del Toro, Panama, Sep- 

 tember 28, 1903 (P. Osterhout) ; Colon, Panama, July 20, 1907 (A. Busck) ; 

 Las Cascadas, Canal Zone, Panama (A. H. Jennings) ; Tabernilla, Canal Zone, 

 Panama, May 2, 1907 (A. Busck) ; San Pablo, Canal Zone, Panama, May 15, 



1907 (A. Busck) ; Bas Obispo, Canal Zone, Panama, May 16, 1907 (A. Busck) ; 

 Panama City, Panama (A. H. Jennings) ; Pedro Miguel, Canal Zone, Panama, 

 November 23, 1907 (A. H. Jennings) ; Caldera Island, Porto Bello Bay, 

 Panama, May 30, 1908 (A. H. Jennings) ; Cascajal Eiver, Panama, May 30, 



1908 (A. H. Jennings). 



Lutzia allostigma has been confused with Lutzia bigoti, which it closely re- 

 sembles. The colorational differences are constant in a large series before us. 

 The male palpi are distinctly longer in this species than in L. bigoti. 



Genus CULISETA Felt 



Theol)aiaia Neveu-Lemaire (not Theohaldius NevlU), C. R. Soc. Biol., Uv, 1331, 1902. 

 Theohatdia Neveu-Lemalre, Mfim. Soc. Zool. Fr., xv, 212, 1902. 

 Theobaldia Theobald, Men. Culic, 111, 148, 1903. 

 Ouliseta Felt, Bull. 79, N. Y. State Mus., 391c, 1904. 



