Carpenter et al.: Mosquitoes of Southern U. S. 127 



BIONOMICS. — The females are troublesome biters. The adults are frequently 

 taken in light traps located near important sources of breeding. The eggs are 

 laid on the leaves of water lettuce (Pistia), and the larvae attach themselves 

 by means of their siphons to the roots of these plants, from which they obtain 

 their air supply. The pupae also remain attached to the roots until time for 

 emergence of the adults. 



Mansonia (Coquillettidia) perturbans (Walker) 



Culex peilurbans Walker, 1856, Ins. Saund., Dipt., p. 428. 



ADULT FEMALE. — Moderately large species. Head: Proboscis dark, with a 

 broad ring of pale scales medially; palpi about one-fifth as long as proboscis, 

 dark scaled, speckled with a few pale scales (Fig. 65B). Occiput clothed with 

 pale-gold lanceolate scales and numerous dark erect forked scales (a few forked 

 scales on anterior portion of occiput pale). Thorax: Scutum covered by dark- 

 brown lanceolate scales intermingled with light golden-brown lanceolate scales 

 (the paler scales more numerous anteriorly, laterally, and on prescutellar 

 space). Spiracular and postspiracular bristles absent. Abdomen: First tergite 

 dark scaled; remaining tergites predominantly dark scaled, with white or pale- 

 yellow basal lateral patches and occasionally with narrow basal transverse 

 bands of pale scales; sternites with intermixed dark and pale scales (the pale 

 scales more numerous basally) . Eighth segment bluntly rounded, not largely 

 retracted within the seventh; eighth tergite lacking short, stout spines. Legs: 

 Femora of fore, middle and hind legs dark, speckled with pale scales, with 

 apices almost entirely dark scaled; femur III with a narrow subapical ring of 

 pale scales, often indefinite; inner surfaces of femora II and III predominantly 

 pale scaled on basal two-thirds. Tibiae I and II dark scaled, speckled with 

 white, the apices narrowly ringed with white scales; tibia III dark scaled, 

 speckled with white, ringed with white scales at outer third and at apex. First 

 tarsal segment of all legs with a narrow white ring basally and a broader white 

 ring a little beyond middle; each of the remaining tarsal segments with basal 

 half white, apical half dark (Fig. 65A). Wing: Scales very broad, mixed dark 

 and white, the dark scales predominating. 



ADULT MALE. — Coloration similar to that of female. TERMINALia (Fig. 

 65C). Ninth tergite (IX-T) with dorsal band rather narrow; lobes (IXT-L) 

 narrow, about as long as wide, sclerotized, widely separated, each bearing 

 several short, stout setae. Tenth sternite (X-S) prominent, heavily sclerotized; 

 dorsal arm (XS-DA) large, curving considerably dorsad to a position just 

 beneath lobe of ninth tergite. Phallosome (Ph) large, heavily sclerotized, two- 

 thirds as broad as long, open dorsally and ventrally, constricted at middle, and 

 slanting suddenly from shoulder at apical third to a toothed apex; each plate 

 with a sinuous longitudinal ventral row of short, heavily sclerotized teeth 

 directed ventrally. Claspette absent. Basistyle (Bs) about one and one-half 

 times as long as wide, bluntly conical, clothed with numerous broad scales and 

 long setae; basal lobe (B-L) flat, triangular, fused to basal half of basistyle, 

 and with a thick, blunt, sclerotized rod and a smaller stout spine, arising from 

 its apex; apical lobe absent. Dististyle (Ds) curved, about two-thirds as long 



