Feeding experiments with this species were carried out in the manner previously described, except that early instar larvae and eggs of A. farauti and C. pullus were used in place of late instar larvae and pupae. The results of these experiments are set out in Table 8.

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Table 8 shows that there was little difference between the numbers of early instar larvae of Anopheles and Culex destroyed by L. jamurensis. This active mite incessantly swims about near the water surface, where it can seize larvae of either of these mosquito genera. Almost three times as many eggs as larvae were destroyed by the hydrachnid during the experiments.

Text-fig. 10.—Limnesia jamurensis.

L. jamurensis adults inhabit long-established ground pools at Palmalmal. Larvae of this water-mite were collected from the thorax and abdomen of mosquito imagines. Female imagines of Culex pullus were occasionally captured with from one to four or these larvae clinging to them, usually on the sides of the abdomen at the junction of two of the segments. Eleven larvae were obtained from the abdomen and thoracic pleura of a female Aëdes belonging to an undescribed species.

Uchida (1935) describes the life-history of a Japanese water-mite, the larvae of which attach themselves to mosquito pupae, transferring from these to the imagines at hatching. The adult mosquitoes carry these larvae to other pools, where the hydrachnids resume an aquatic existence. It would seem that L. jamurensis is transported from pool to pool in a similar manner.

Lamborn (1890) records that a species of red mite was observed to attack the eggs of Odonata, and Hearle (1926) states that a hydrachnid found in cottonwood swamps in British Columbia makes mosquito larvae its chief food.