6 MOSQUITOES OF XOETH AMERICA 



It has been found necessary to omit the group Corethringe, which should be 

 included to properly round out the family Culicidge, and restrict ourselves to 

 the Culicinas — the forms wath the long proboscis. 



It seems advisable to call attention at the outset to changes in the scientific 

 names of those species which are most important from the economic standpoint. 

 These changes have become necessary, partly through the strict application of the 

 laws of priority, partly through generic revision, and also from a more exact 

 knowledge of the specific limitations of the species concerned. The reasons for 

 these changes will appear in the systematic part of the work. 



Most important is the change in the name of the yellow-fever mosquito from 

 the generally adopted Stegomyia fasciata and Stegomyia calopus to Aedes calo- 

 pus as a result of the untenability of the generic concept " Stegomyia." What 

 was known in this country as Anopheles macuUpennis is now Anopheles quad- 

 rimaculatus and A. occidentalis, the first-named species being distinct and con- 

 fined to the Old World. Through priority Culex fatigans or Culex cuhensis be- 

 comes Culex quinquefasciatus. Culex pungens appears to have been used in the 

 earlier writings on North American mosquitoes as a concept to include Culex 

 pipiens, Culex restuans, and Culex quinquefasciatus (and perhaps others) before 

 these species had been differentiated. 



While it is expected that this work will be of assistance to medical and sani- 

 tary men, as well to others, it must be distinctly understood that it is an ento- 

 mological monograph and not a medical monograph. The writers are ento- 

 mologists and not physicians or medical investigators. Thus, while necessarily 

 in the first volume some space is given to the history of the discoveries of the 

 relation of mosquitoes to disease, and to the diseases themselves in a broad way, 

 as well as some consideration of the life histories of their causative organisms, 

 these portions are not the result of original investigation, but have been com- 

 piled from reliable sources. 



We are under great obligations to Dr. Arthur Neiva, of the Institute Oswaldo 

 Cruz in Rio de Janeiro, who, during a visit in Washington, gave us liberal 

 help and advice in the preparation of the parts on mosquito-borne diseases. The 

 part on the malarial organisms is from his pen and presents the modern views in 

 succinct form. 



Especial thanks are also due to Mr. Louis H. Ayme, United States Consul- 

 General at Lisbon, Portugal, who, while in the States on a vacation from his 

 former Brazilian post, spent many hours of his leisure time in translating for 

 the writers, from the Portuguese into English, the more important portions of 

 Goeldi's large work on the mosquitoes of Para. To the following the hearty 

 thanks of the authors are due for material or for assistance in one way or an- 

 other. In this list are not mentioned the writers' colleagues in the Division of 

 Insects, U. S. National Museum, or in the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, although many of them have been of assistance. 

 Individual species or small lots of mosquitoes have been received from many 

 correspondents, but these are mentioned in the text in the consideration of the 

 individual species. 



