154 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



THE IDENTIFICATION OF CULEX CYANEUS 



FABRICIUS. 



[Diptera, Culicid?e.] 

 BY FREDERICK KNAB. 



Theobald assumed that the Culc.v cvancns of Fabricius is 

 identical with Williston's Haeinagogns spleiidens.* Although 

 it is evident that Theobald had not gone beyond a cursory 

 perusal of the original description, this identification was gen- 

 erally accepted. To the writer the original description seemed 

 to conflict with this identification in that it indicates a mos- 

 quito with uniformly white sides of the abdomen. This type 

 of coloration is characteristic of the Sabethini and so are the 

 long legs indicated by Fabricius. Very few mosquitoes of the 

 metallic blue color of Culc.r cyaneits are known, and in 

 view of the recent large collections of Culicidse it seems im- 

 probable that Fabricius had before him a species that has 

 remained unknown to subsequent workers. In considering 

 these points Dr. Dyar and the writer thought that most 

 probably the mosquito in question was identical with Sabeth- 

 oides nitidus Theobald (=S. confusus Theo.) and published 

 this opinion ;f however, until the type had been examined, this 

 identification could not be more than tentative. The opportun- 

 ity to definitely identify this mosquito came in 1908, when Mr. 

 Busck visited Copenhagen, where the type is preserved in the 

 Royal Zoological Museum. 



Mr. Busck examined the type at our request and what he 

 found showed that our determination was incorrect. The speci- 

 men has a much swollen proboscis, while in Sabcthoides nitidus, 

 and also in Haemagogus, the proboscis is slender. The 

 abdomen is blue above, silvery below, not banded, and this 

 indicated a sabethid ; but Mr. Busck, who examined the spec- 

 imen with a hand-lens, could find no sete on the metanotum. 

 Moreover, he found that on the front legs, the only ones 

 remaining, the claws are toothed near the middle, a condition 

 we had not found in any of the many sabethids we had studied. 

 Yet we could not find that there was a blue culicine with swol- 

 len proboscis, and it seemed inconceivable that Fabricius had 

 a mosquito which has since remained unknown. A review of 

 all the blue mosquitoes with reference to the proboscis led 

 inevitably to Sobethes. and as in the Fabrician type the 

 middle legs, which in that genus bear the characteristic cilia- 

 tion, were missing, it seemed probable that cyancus belongs to 



*Monograph Culicids:, vol. 2, p. 238-241 (1901). 

 fProc. Biol. Soc. Wash., v. 19, p. 168 (1906). 



