174 THE AUSTRALIAN ‘NATURALIST. 
Mr. Maxwell, a beautifully-preserved collection of moths. 
from Port Hacking. Mr. Horan, the teeth and jaws of a 
sheep, showing the so-called ‘‘gold”’ incrustation. A note on 
this subject appears in present issue, 
3rd December, 1912, Mr. E. S. Edwards, M.A. (presi- 
dent) in the chair. The following specimens were exhibited : 
Mr. J. E. Carne, crude petroleum, coral-rock, and Tertiary 
fossils, Wailala River, Carnick River, and Purari, Papua. 
Mr. Wickham, a most interesting series of life stages of 
moths, some as yet unrecorded, illustrated by original water- 
color paintings. Mr. Gurney suggested that Mr. Wickam’s 
notes should be submitted for publication in ‘‘Zhe Australian 
Naturalist.” Miss Brewster, Psylla (MJacropsylla fici) a. 
small sucking insect commonly attacking the leaves of More- 
ton Bay Fig, and causing the exudation of blotches of milky 
gum. Miss M. Brewster, two Hawk-moth cocoons, the larvae 
of which fed on Virginia creeper. Most Hawk-moths do not 
construct definite cocoons, those of the genus Coequosa being 
an occasional exception. Mr. A. G. Hamilton, a fasciated 
specimen of Casuarina. Mr. H. E. Finckh, Bladder-weed, 
Utricularia; an interesting orchid, Dendrobuim lingutforme, 
and a useful aquarium snail, Planorbis. Mr. A. J. Carter,. 
B.A., a series of rare Buprestid beetles of the genus Stigmo- 
tera, 
MISCELLANEA ENTOMOLOGICA. 
(By Thos. Steel, F.L.S.) 
Feeding of Mosquito, Culex alboannulatus, Macq. In 
order to determine the quantity of blood taken by this mos- 
quito, which is one of the commonest species occurring in 
dwelling houses about Sydney, an experiment was made by 
burning pyrethrum powder (Insectibane) in a bedroom in the 
morning. The mosquitos were quickly overcome, and could 
be readily collected about the windows to which they flew 
when they felt the effects of the vapour. A considerable 
number of gorged insects were placed in a glass tube, and a 
corresponding number which had not fed in another. These 
were weighed on a fine chemical balance. The unfed mos- 
quitos weighed on an averago 1.3 millegramme each, or at 
the rate of nearly 22,000 per ounce, while the gorged ex- 
amples weighed 3.2 Mg., or about 9,000 per ounce. From 
these figures we see that at a meal a mosquito of thigy species 
is capable of ingesting 1.9 Mgs., or about 1} times its own 
weight of blood. A drop is a somewhat indefinite quantity, 
depending as it does on the shape of the orifice at which it is 
