24 
A Monograph of Culicidae. 
intact egg its reticulated appearance. Stripped of this mem¬ 
brane, the egg appears with a glistening black surface com¬ 
parable to that of patent leather. One end of the egg is slightly 
blunter and more rounded than the other, and this contains the 
head end of the embryo.” It seems that when the egg, as 
frequently happens, is drawn by capillary action a little way out 
of the water on to a leaf or some half-submerged object, the blunt 
end always points downwards, and thus the larva emerges into 
the water, and not into the air. The observations of Nuttall 
and Shipley do not confirm Grassi’s statement regarding the 
position in which the eggs are found. They say, “In open pools 
in their natural state they seem to be invariably scattered and 
not arranged as Grassi describes. 
Corethra ova. —Coreihra deposit their eggs also on the 
water, still water being always chosen. They are laid a short 
time after the female leaves the pupa. The eggs are collected 
together in flat, round, jelly-like masses which float on the 
water, according to Meinert. The number of eggs, he says, 
may be from 100 to 150, and are most often arranged in a 
spiral line; these jelly-like masses of eggs vary from 2 to 4 mm. 
in width. Miall also says the female deposits her eggs on the 
surface of the water in a flat gelatinous sheet, the eggs being 
arranged in spiral lines. 
With regard to Maclilonyx, Psorophorci, Aedes, ifcc., I know 
nothing, and can find no references concerning their eggs or 
methods of oviposition. 
STRUCTURE OF CULICID LARVAE. 
In structure the larvae of the different genera of the 
family Culicidae vary as much as the adults, as far as we at 
present know. In the old genus Culex, which contained by far 
the major proportion of the described species—and for that 
matter it does still—there is also seen to be considerable 
variation in form. These differences in some cases are, I believe, 
of generic importance, but the information I have at hand is 
not sufficient; many of the larvae are only mentioned under 
popular names, so that I cannot make sufficient use of the work 
so far done. But in one paper, by Captain James, can be seen 
two types of Culex larvae totally different from one another, 
