CULEX DECORATOR 427 



Prothoracic lobes elliptical, remote dorsally, clothed with pale scales and black 

 bristles. Mesonotum dark brown, clothed with bronzy-brown, narrow, cur^'ed 

 scalq^s; bristles coarse, black. Scutelhim trilobate, luteous, with similar vesti- 

 ture to mesonotum ; each lobe with a tuft of black bristles. Postnotum elliptical, 

 prominent, dark brown, nude. Pleurse brownish with dark spots, coxae luteous, 

 with patches of flat white scales and rows of brown bristles. 



Abdomen subcylindrical, truncate at tip; dorsal vestiture brownish black, 

 with a series of whitish segmental basal bands joined to a row of lateral seg- 

 mental triangular white patches ; first segment unhanded ; venter with segments 

 banded black and white, the white bands basal; ends of segments with dark 

 hairs. 



Wings moderate, hyaline ; petiole of second marginal cell one-fourth as long 

 as its cell, that of second posterior cell shorter than its cell; basal cross-vein 

 nearly twice its own length distant from anterior cross-vein; scales of veins 

 brown, outstanding ones on second to fourth veins near tip of wing very dense, 

 mostly narrowly ovate. Halteres whitish, with dark knobs. 



Legs slender, rather long; vestiture black, with a bronzy reflection; femora 

 whitish beneath except at tips. Claw formula, 0.0-0.0-0.0. 



Length : Body about 3 mm. ; wing 3 mm. 



Male. Proboscis long, straight, gradually enlarged to apex ; bronzy black. 

 Palpi exceeding the proboscis by more than the length of the last joint; vesti- 

 ture bronzy brown. Antennas plumose ; last two joints long and slender, rugose, 

 pilose, black, the others short, whitish, with thick, black rings at insertions of 

 hair-whorls; hairs long, dense, brown. Coloration similar to the female. 

 Abdomen elongate, broadened towards apex; basal bands moderately broad; 

 ciliation of irregularly placed coarse black bristles. Wings hardly narrower 

 than in the female, the stems of the fork-cells about the same ; vestiture some- 

 what less abundant. Claw formula, 1.0-1.0-0.0. 



Length : Body about 3 mm. ; wing 2.5 mm. 



Genitalia (plate 13, fig. 90) : Side-pieces over twice as long as wide, rounded 

 at tips ; inner process divided, its distal part bearing four or five setse, of which 

 the inner ones are stout; proximal part widely furcate, each arm bearing a long 

 filament with slightly expanded bent tip, the inner arm short; clasp-filament 

 with base slightly enlarged, tip expanded, with a central groove, outer apex 

 bearing an area of spines, terminal claw small, stout. Harpes with the inner 

 limb long, slender, bearing a comb of spines at its tip, outer limb obsolete. 

 Harpagones divided into several lamellae, inner one triply expanded at tip and 

 angled. Unci forming a small basal cone. 



Type : Xq. 12679, U. S. National Museum. 



Life history and habits unknown. 



Island of Cuba, West Indies. 



San Antonio de los Banos (J. H. Pazos) ; Guanimar (south coast) (J .H. 

 Pazos) ; ? Havana (J. E. Taylor). 



CULEX DECORATOR Dyar & Knab. 



Culex decorator Dyar & Knab, Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, xiv, 207, 218, 1906. 



Original Description of Culex decorator: 



Antennae with the tuft beyond the outer third, dark; head hairs, the upper tuft 

 triple, the lower single; lateral hairs double on the second segment, in threes on the 

 third to fifth, in twos and much longer on the sixth. Air tube 7X1, the pecten not 

 reaching one-third, short. Anal gills short. 



Collected by Mr. Busck on Tobago Island, the larvae in bamboo joints. They were 

 brought to Washington alive, but failed to mature. 



