THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 133 
enemies and were therefore so numerous. In the pools be- 
low high water mark were some tiny fish which eat mosquito 
larvae, and these small fish would not be able to reach the 
higher pools... . . This species ofi mosquito was described 
by Skuse from Gosford, Kiama, and other coastal districts 
of N.S.W., and Dr. Bancroft has recorded it from Johnstone 
River, North Queensland. Skuse has made no note of its 
habits, but, in Theobald’s monograph, ‘‘Culicidae of the 
World,’ it is stated that Dr. Bancroft had bred specimens 
from salt water. 
Theobald named the species Culex marinus, but he later 
identified it as Skuse’s species (Culea vigilaz). 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
A Rare Dracon Fiy.—It was my good fortune on the 
17th of February of this year to collect at Maroubra a male 
specimen of Austrothemis nigrescens, Martin. This the first 
record of this species having been taken in N.S. Wales for a 
period of 60 years. It has, however, been collected in Wes- 
tern Australia. For the guidance of other naturalists I give 
herewith brief descriptions (kindly drawn up for me by Mr. 
R. J. Tillyard, M.A., F.E.S.) of the male and female. They 
are as follow:—‘‘Male: brilliant red abdomen with very 
conspicuous black triangular markings; also the extreme dila- 
tion of the abdomen from segments 3-8. Female: brownish 
with black markings, and a shorter and thicker abdomen. 
Wings of both sexes touched at bases with saffroning and 
also with black. There is no other known dragon fly that 
comes anywhere near this combination of shape and colour 
except A cthriamanta circumsignata, a rare species from N, 
Queensland.’’—A. Muscravz, 
At Springwood, Blue Mountains, last November, I ob- 
served a wag-tail capture a male specimen of Heteronympha 
merope, pull off its wings and then eat the body.—G. A. 
WATERHOUSE. 
An Acep Enromotoctst,—One of the most interesting per- 
sonalities in respect of living naturalists, is that grand old 
French entomologist, J. H. Fabre, now in his ninetieth year. 
‘Fabre is one of those rare literary. and __ scientific geniuses 
whose work appeals on one hand to the man in the laboratory, 
