23 
tke pointed ellipse, convex, below and concave above, all the eggs per- 
pendicular, in 6 to 13 longitudinal rows, with from 3 or 4 to 40 eggs in 
arow. The number of eges in each batch varies from 200 to 400. As 
seen from above the egg mass is gray brown; from below, silvery 
white, the latter appearance being due to the air film. It seems 
impossible to wet these egg masses. They may be pushed under 
water, but bob up apparently as dry as ever. The ege mass separates 
rather regularly, and the eggs are not stuck together very firmly. 
After they have hatched the mass will disintegrate in a few days, even 
in perfectly still water. 
The individual eggs are 0.7 mm. in length and 0.16mm. in diameter 
at the base. They are slender, broader and blunt at bottom, slenderer 
Fie. 1,—Culex pungens: Egg mass, with englarged eggs at left and young larvee below—enlarged 
(original) . 
color, while the rest of the egg is dirty white. Repeated observations 
show that the eggs hatch, under advantageous conditions, certainly 
as soon as sixteen hours. Water buckets containing no egg masses, 
placed out at night, were found to contain egg masses at 8 o’clock in 
the morning, which, as above stated, were probably laid in the early 
morning, before daylight. These eggs, the third week in May, began 
to hatch quite regularly at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of the same day 
on warm days. In cooler weather they sometimes remained unhatched 
until the second day. If we apply the evidence of Kuropean observers 
to this species, the period of the egg state may be under twelve hours; 
but there is a possibility that they are laid earlier in the night, which 
accounts for the fact that sixteen hours is the shortest period which we 
can definitely mention. 
