CULEX PLEURISTRIATUS 437 



short, very stout, tlie tuft at outer third and arising from a notch, the terminal 

 setse short; upper pair of dorsal head-hairs in fours, lower pair single; ante- 

 antennal tuft multiple. Body with skin smooth. Lateral comb of eighth seg- 

 ment of many spines in a patch, the last row of large coarse ones, the others 

 minute. Air-tube about six times as long as basal width, stout on basal third, 

 slender and uniform beyond; pecten on basal third of tube, of long spines, ex- 

 ceeding diameter of tube at the middle ; four tufts in line on outer half of tube, 

 equally spaced ; terminal hooks very long, curved, simple. Anal segment longer 

 than wide, ringed by the plate; dorsal tuft of two long hairs on each side; 

 ventral brush confined by the chitinous ring. Anal gills small, tapering, shorter 

 than the segment. 



Mr, Jennings bred the specimens from a mixed lot of larvae taken from water 

 between the leaves of Bromeliacese. 



Panama. 



Fort San Felipe, Porto Bello Bay, January 21, 1908, February 10, 1909 (A. 

 H. Jennings) ; Upper Pequini Eiver, March 25, 1909, from bromelias on a tree 

 at Survey Camp No. 3 (A. H. Jennings). 



CULEX PLEURISTRIATUS Theobald. 



Culex pleuristriatus Theobald, Mon. Culic, iii, 177, 1903. 



Culex pleuristriatus Lutz in Bourroul. Mosq. do Brasll, 43, 72, 1904. 



Culex pleuristriatus Dyar & Knab, Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, xiv, 205, 209, 1906. 



Culex pleuristriatus Peryassu, Os Culicld. do Brazil, 192, 1908. 



Culex pleuristriatus Theobald, Mon. Culic, v, 345, 1910. 



Original Description of Culex plexjeistriatus : 



Thorax rich brown, ornamented with creamy golden and black scales; pleurae 

 very pale, with two broken parallel brown lines. Abdomen deep brown, with basal 

 lateral white spots. Proboscis black, unhanded. Legs deep brown, the fore un- 

 handed, the mid and the hind with very narrow pale basal bands. 



5. Head ornamented, with narrow-curved silvery-white scales on the crown and 

 front, the sides with flat white, and then flat ochraceous and brown scales, the 

 upright forked scales in the middle are bright ochraceous, with a patch of jet black 

 ones on each side; palpi, proboscis and antennae black. 



Thorax brown, ornamented with creamy, golden and black narrow-curved scales 

 as follows: The creamy ones forming a line on each side in front and a patch in front 

 of the bare space in front of the scutellum and on each side of it; the golden scales 

 form more or less a median area anteriorly, the spaces between which are rich brown, 

 having small jet-black curved scales; scutellum brown, with narrow-curved pale 

 scales and a few black ones; six border-bristles to the mid lobe; metanotum brown; 

 pleurae pallid grey, with a broad dark line over the base of the legs and another 

 more irregular one above it; there are also grey flat scales on the pleurae. 



Abdomen black, the first segment nude, with two patches of black scales, the 

 second segment with a median basal white patch, the third unadorned, the next four 

 with basal lateral white spots, which in some specimens spread out and almost form 

 narrow bands; border-bristles pale golden; the fourth segment has a median pale 

 bristle; in one specimen the first, second and third segments have median white 

 spots; venter brown, with basal white ornamentation; legs deep blackish-brown, with 

 the coxae very pale grey ; the fore legs usually unhanded, the mid and the hind have 

 narrow white basal bands to some or all of the tarsi and metatarsi; ungues small, 

 equal and simple. 



Wings with the veins clothed with typical Culex scales; the first sub-marginal cell 

 longer and narrower than the second posterior cell, its base much nearer the base of 

 the wing than that of the latter; stem of the first sub-marginal very short, of the 

 second posterior nearly as long as the cell; posterior cross-vein about three times 

 its own length distant from the mid cross-vein. Halteres with grey stem, with a 

 black streak at the " elbow *' and a black knob. 



Length. 4 mm. 



Habitat. Sao Paulo, Brazil (Dr. Lutz). 



Observations. Described from some specimens sent me by Dr. Lutz, who proposed 

 the name I have adopted. It seems to vary considerably. I think it comes well in 

 the genus Culex, although the wing scales are dense apically, giving it the appear- 

 ance of a Melanoconops. The cephalic ornamentation is very marked. 



