OUTLINE OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA 



COVERED. 



The region included in the present monograph extends over North and 

 Central America, from southern Canada to the Isthmus of Panama, including 

 the West India Islands and the island of Trinidad. The Arctic portion of 

 North America, Labrador, the Hudson Bay region, northern Saskatchewan, 

 northern British Columbia, and Alaska are excluded, owing to the fact that no 

 sufficient material was obtainable from this region with the time and means at 

 our disposal. We regret this necessar}' omission, as the Arctic is known to be 

 well inhabited by mosquitoes, and should undoubtedly yield a number of inter- 

 esting species. Our collections cover southern Canada from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific more or less completely, the United States, parts of Mexico, small collec- 

 tions from several points in the Central American states, and fairly complete 

 collections from the Panama Canal Zone. The mosquitoes of Jamaica have been 

 made known through the efforts of Dr. M. Grabham, and we have less represen- 

 tative material from Cuba, Santo Domingo, and some of the smaller islands. 

 The island of Trinidad has been included, although it does not properly belong 

 to the same faunal region with the other West Indies, having a continental 

 fauna. Its species are more nearly allied to those of continental origin occurring 

 in Panama, many being identical. These two regions lead insensibly into the 

 South American fauna, which should properly be included in a work of this 

 character, but we have not had the opportunity to acquire sufficient material 

 from the southern continent. 



Many portions of our territory are very inadequately covered by the collec- 

 tions before us. Mexico presents many still unexplored regions, while the 

 Central American states are most imperfectly known to us. This is partly 

 compensated by our comparatively good collections from the Panama Canal 

 Zone, as many of these species undoubtedly range further to the north; still 

 there must be many undiscovered species in this territory, and we expect to see 

 the list of species considerably extended by further research. Unfortunately 

 we have no material from the island of Santa Lucia, whence Mr. Theobald 

 received considerable collections, nor from St. Vincent, whence Professor Willis- 

 ton described several species. Consequently we have been unable to recognize 

 several of these species in the material before us ; since many of the West Indian 

 species are peculiar to certain islands it would be unsafe to identify from one 

 island a species described from another without authentic material for com- 

 parison and a knowledge of the larva, even in cases of apparent agreement with 

 the description. This is more particularly true of members of the genus Culex, 

 many of which are closely allied to one another, and appear to be recently evolved 

 or plastic forms, which lend themselves to geographical diversity, shown, per- 

 haps, only in the larval stages and in the structure of the male genitalia. 



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