670 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



point directed outward. Harpagones with a long columnar minutely setose 

 base, bearing a ligulate terminal filament which tapers to the tip and bears a 

 short retrose branch about the middle. Unci obscure, forming a short stout 

 basal cylinder. Basal appendages short, stout, with a number of setse. 



Larva, Stage IV. — ^Head rounded, prominent on the sides, narrowed before 

 eyes, the front margin arcuate. Antennae subcylindrical, slightly tapered, very 

 sparsely and minutely spined all over; tuft small, before the middle; a long 

 spine and two short ones at tip, a sessile digit and one on a pedestal. Both pairs 

 of dorsal head-hairs single, slight, ante-antennal tufts multiple. Mental plate 

 triangular, the central tooth large, with eleven teeth on each side, dense toward 

 tip, remote at base. Mandible quadrangular, wide at the tip ; two long filaments 

 near tip ; an outer row of stout cilia ; eleven filamentous cilia on the outer edge ; 

 dentition of four teeth on a prominence, the first and third longer; two filaments 

 before, one within and two trifid teeth at base; process below furcate, with 

 groups of hairs ; a row of five large setse ; an angle below ; nine large setae at base, 

 the outer ones longer. Maxilla irregularly hemispherical, divided by a suture; 

 inner half wide, angled on outer edge, with stiff papiUs without and sparse 

 hairs next the suture, a crown of hairs at tip and a feathered filament ; outer 

 half largely hairy, with two filaments distant from the suture; palpus about 

 three times as long as wide, truncate at tip, with two slight and two minute 

 digits. Body with the skin pilose. Thorax rounded, wider than long, robust; 

 hairs abundant, short, the subdorsal prothoracic ones single. Abdomen stout, 

 the posterior segments more elongate ; skin pilose ; hairs short, the lateral hairs 

 multiple on first two segments, triple on third to fifth, single on sixth. Tracheal 

 tubes broad, band-shaped, slightly constricted at the segmentations. Air-tube 

 stout, tapered outwardly, one and a half times as long as wide ; pecten reaching 

 halfway, the teeth evenly and closely set, followed by a multiple hair-tuft ; single 

 tooth a stout spine, wide at base, with four stout branches on each side. Lateral 

 comb of the eighth segment of about twenty scales in a small triangular patch ; 

 single scale sole-shaped, broadly rounded at tip, with fourteen terminal spinules, 

 nearly alike, only the basal ones shorter. Anal segment not as long as wide, 

 ringed by the plate ; dorsal tuft a brush and hair on either side ; a single lateral 

 hair ; ventral brush weU developed, of short tufts, posteriorly situated, confined 

 to barred area. Anal gills very short. 



Egg (plate 146, fig. 678). — Fusiform, slightly flattened on one side, a gelat- 

 inous cushion at the micropyle ; sculpture irregularly hexagonal, elongated in 

 the long diameter of the egg. 



The larvae live in brackish or fresh water pools near the sea. They do not 

 normally occur quite so near the sea as the larvae of Aides sollidtans, preferring 

 water with less salt, but under special conditions they occur mixed with them. 

 The eggs are laid in the mud and hatch when the pools are filled, a set of larvae 

 appearing on each such occasion. Professor Smith, who studied the species in 

 New Jersey, says of the larval habits : 



" These are like those of sollidtans and cantator and with their larvae those of 

 tcemorhynchus also occur. None of our collections show larvae of this species 

 only, though Mr. Viereck's material approached this point very nearly at one 

 period. As a rule they are in the small minority. In a mass of partly grown 

 larvae there is little apparent difference between the three species, but when full 

 grown the maculate heads of cantator and tcemorhynchus are characteristic, 

 while between these the very short anal siphon distinguishes the latter. 



" Practically eveiything that has been said of the habits of the two other 

 species above mentioned applies to tcmiorhynchus as well. As the species 

 is more southern in its range, sollidtans is its companion more frequently than 

 cantator." 



