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Eggs and Oviposition.
Skuse (1888 p. 1740), describes the eggs of this species as being hatched from boat-shaped masses of nearly 300 eggs; but this is now known to be incorrect. They are laid singly, though they may, and often do, run together forming star-shaped masses, but they never lie side by side to form rows as described in the case of Culex pervigilans. Any two eggs approaching to within a quarter of an inch of each other will at once run together and become attached by their ends, not by their sides. The eggs are light in colour when first laid, but become black after two or three hours' exposure. The surface presents a matt appearance under a low power; this may be due to air bubbles, for when they are shaken in water the matt surface is lost and they sink to the bottom, but this does not interfere in any
Fig. 13.—Egg of A. notoscriptus.
way with the hatching of the larvae. When the egg has lost its matt surface, the dark black colour is replaced by dark brown. In form (Fig. 13) they are navicular, slightly more pointed at one end than the other, the micropyle being at the less acute end.
| Length of egg | .625 mm. |
| Greatest width | .2 mm. |
These eggs are not easy to find, for they occur in natural or artificial water containers in sheltered positions, in hollows in rocks, especially those occurring in caves, in knot- and rot-holes in such trees as mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus) tawhero (Weinmannia racemosa), pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), kowhai (Sophora tetraptera) and puriri (Vitex littoralis); in the axils of nikau leaves (both on the palm and on the ground), Astelia, and in banana palms in gardens and conservatories; in barrels, tanks and troughs in the shade of buildings, trees, shrubs or long grass, and in standing water in conservatories or ferneries. I have also found them in drains, swamps and water-holes, but this is exceptional. These eggs are only found in still and stagnant water, rich in organic matter from the overhanging vegetation, and I have observed by placing tins with clear and stagnant water side by side that the female of this species has a strong preference for the stagnant water for oviposition, a
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preference more marked than in the case of Culex pervigilans. Similar observations demonstrated her preference for shade. A most unusual breeding place for this species was in fire buckets on the Papakura railway station, a most open and windy situation.
The egg takes from 36 to 72 hours to develop and hatch, temperature largely controlling the rate; when the eggs are immersed they take twenty-four hours longer to hatch. These eggs are not laid until the last week in October in the Auckland district, and then only in a few warm locations, but in November and onwards to May large numbers are laid; after May they decrease in numbers and in June eggs are seldom seen. I have not observed the egg-laying of this easily disturbed species, although I have kept them in cages in the laboratory, and I am therefore unable to state whether oviposition takes place in daylight or at night.