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American Midland Naturalist Monograph No. 3 



CuLEx (Melanoconion) atratus Theobald 



Culex alratus Theobald, 1901, Mon. Culic. 2:55. 



ADULT FEMALE. — Small species. Head: Proboscis long, dark, slightly swol- 

 len at tip; palpi short, dark. Occiput clothed with broad appressed scales on 

 antero-dorsal and lateral regions (antero-dorsal scales dark; lateral scales pale), 

 and with numerous light-brown lanceolate scales and dark erect forked scales 

 centrally. Thorax: Integument of scutum dark brown, clothed with narrow 

 reddish-brown scales. Abdomen: Tergites dark scaled, with white basal patches 

 laterally; sternite white-banded basally, dark apically. Legs: All legs dark 

 scaled with bronze reflection, except for pale inner surfaces of femora. Wing: 

 Wing scales dark, mostly rather narrow, linear, but mixed with ovate ones on 

 vein 3 and branches of veins 2 and 4. 



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

 144). Lobes of ninth tergite (IXT-L) large, pyriform, separated by a little 

 less than the width of one lobe, each bearing a number of stout irregularly 

 placed feathered and smooth setae on basal half; apical half bare and tapered. 

 Tenth sternite (X-S) crowned with a comb-like row of blunt spines. Phallo- 

 some (Ph) formed of a pair of simple curved divergent blade-like plates, 



-IXT-L 



Fio. 144. Male terminalia of Culex alraliis Theobald. 



