24 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



Megarhinus ferox Wied. 1 male. 



Habitat: District of Columbia, August 22 (Pergande). 

 Megarhinus rutilus Coq. 3 males, 5 females. 



Habitat: North Carolina; Georgiana, Fla. (Nat. Mus.). 

 Aedes sapphirinus O. S. 1 female. 



Habitat: Ithaca, N. Y. (Comstock). 



(B) Species recorded from the United States, but not included in the material studied. 



Culex rubidus Desvoidy, Culicides, etc. Carolina. 



Culex testaceus v. d. Wulp, Tijdschr. v. Entom., 2d ser., II, 128, Tab. Ill, f. 1. Wis- 

 consin. 



Culex incidens Thomson, Eugenie's Resa, etc., 443. California. 



Culex territans Walker, Dipt. Saund., 428. United States. 



Psorophora boscii Desvoidy, Culicides, etc. Carolina. 



Anopheles annulimanus v. d. Wulp, Tijdschr. v. Entom., 2d ser., II, 129, Tab. Ill, f. 2. 

 Wisconsin. 



Anopheles ferruginosus Wiedemann, Auss. Zw., I, 12. New Orleans (Wied.); on the 

 Mississippi (Say). 

 Culex quinquefasciatus Say, Journ. Ac. Phil., Ill, 10, 2; Compl. Wr., II, 39. 

 (Change of name by Wied.) 



Anopheles maculipennis Meigen (European species, which also occurs in North America, 

 according to Loew, Sillim. Journ., n. ser., Vol. XXXVII, 317). 



Anopheles nigripes Staeger (European species, which also occurs in North America, 

 according to Loew, Sillim. Journ., n. ser., Vol. XXXVII, 317). 



Aedes fuscus O. Sacken, Western Diptera, 191. Cambridge, Mass. 



THE CAT AND DOG FLEA. 



(Pulex serraticeps Gerv.) 



Examination of many specimens of fleas sent to the Department in 

 recent years shows that the species which commonly overruns houses 

 during- the damp summers, in our Eastern cities at least, is not, as many 

 have supposed, the human flea (Pulex irritans), but the common cos- 

 mopolitan flea of the dog and the cat (Pulex serraticeps). There is wide- 

 spread ignorance as to the transformations of this insect, and even the 

 average entomologist is puzzled to know where to consult good figures 

 of the different stages and a detailed account of the life history. The 

 figures accompanying this article have been prepared to fill this want, 

 and the following account of the transformations has been drawn up 

 from notes made during the summer of 1895, at the request of the 

 writer, by Mr. Pergande, of the division of entomology. The best two 

 of the previously published articles are, one by Laboulbene, in the 

 Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, 1872, pp. 267-273, PI. 

 XIII, and the other by W. J. Simmons, read before the Microscopical 

 Society of Calcutta, March 5, 1888, and x>rinted in The American 

 Monthly Microscopical Journal for December, 1888, with no illustra- 

 tions. 1 



'Ritzema has written an article on the natural history of the dog flea, which, 

 however, could not be consulted by the writer. 



