940 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



9. Head clothed with flat, golden-brown scales behind, pale green ones in front; 

 antennae brown, basal joints small and rotund, with greyish sheen; palpi with 

 metallic green scales; proboscis coppery. 



Thorax brown, with small bronzy and green scales, the green ones at the sides; 

 prothoracic lobes with pale blue scales; scutellum clothed with pale brown scales, 

 with golden and other reflections, those on the lateral lobe pale blue; pleurae brown, 

 with dense masses of pale golden scales; metathorax dark brown. 



Abdomen covered with bright, metallic, olive-green scales, the venter golden 

 scaled; first segment with pale blue scales, and the apex yellow, with dense yellow 

 hairs. 



Legs long and moderately thick, in the fore legs the bases of the femora are 

 yellowish; the remainder of them, the tibiae and metatarsi deep steely blue; the 

 first three tarsal joints yellowish-white, the last blackish, in the mid legs much the 

 same; hind legs, with the femora, pale at the base, deep blue at the apex, with a 

 pale knee spot; tibiae golden, except at the base, where they are dark brown; 

 metatarsus golden-bronzy towards the tip, first and second tarsal joints deep purplish- 

 black, the apex of the latter joint white, last two joints lost; fore and mid ungues 

 nearly straight, equal and simple. 



Wings slightly dusky along the costal border, some of the veins with metallic 

 purple scales; supernumerary cross-vein some distance nearer the apex of the wing 

 than the mid cross-vein, the latter joining and forming almost a right angle with the 

 posterior cross-vein. 



Halteres pale, with fuscous knob. 



Length. 8 mm. (of mid legs 18 mm., of wings 9 mm.). 



Habitat. Mexico. 



Observations. Described from a single 5 ^^ the British Museum collection. 

 It is a very distinct, rather iridescent, yellowish-looking, large species, with vena- 

 tion like a typical Megarhinus, but with no caudal tuft, with pale olive-green abdo- 

 men, except the first segment, which is pale blue. It shows considerable variation 

 in colour when held in different directions, but its large size and general yellowish 

 hue and absence of caudal tufts should at once separate it, as well as its long spider- 

 like legs. 



This species may belong to my genus Toxorhynchites, as I am not certain from 

 a single specimen if the palpi are broken or not; they appear as if broken. 



We have no specimen of Megarhinus longipes and no additional authentic 

 specimens have been reported by others. 



The male and larva are unknown and nothing is known of the life history. 



Mexico (Theobald). 



Our whole knowledge of this species rests upon Theobald's description of a 

 single female in the British Museum. The exact locality in Mexico is not given. 

 The species seems distinct, as shown in Theobald's figure (Mon. Culic, pi. ix, 

 fig. 34) with its green body and yellow legs; it should be kept in mind, however, 

 that the specimen may be an old one and the pale appearance due to fading 

 or partial denudation. In his original description Theobald described white 

 markings on all the tarsi, but later, in his table (Mon. Culic, iv, 128), he lists 

 the species under the heading " Tarsals unhanded " without any explanation 

 of this startling contradiction. 



MEGARHINUS RUTILA Coquillett. 



Megarhinus rutila Coquillett (in part), Can. Ent, xxviii, 44, 1896. 



Megarhinus rutila Coquillett (in part), U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Circular 40, 2d 



ser., 7, 1900. 

 Megarhinus rutilus Howard (in part), U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent., Bull. 25, n. s., 22, 



1900. 

 Megarhina rutilla Giles, Handb. Gnats or Mosq., 131, 1900. 

 Megarhinus rutillus Theobald (in part), Mon. Culic, i, 244, 1901. 

 Toxorhynchites rutilus Howard, Mosquitoes, 155, 240, 1901. 

 Megarhina rutilla Giles (in part), Handb. Gnats or Mosq., 2 ed., 268, 275, 1902. 

 Toxorhynchites rutilus Theobald, Mon. Culic, iii, 124, 1903. 

 Toxorhynchites rutilus Aldrich, Cat. N. Amer. Dipt, 124, 1905. 

 Megarhinus rutilus Blanchard (in part), Les Moust, 228, 1905. 

 Megarhinus rutilus Coquillett (in part), U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Ent., Tech. Ser. 11, 



14, 1906. 



