60 INSECUTOR INSCITI^ MENSTRUUS 



of the next oldest specific name, calopus Meigen (1818). But 

 no stability has been reached, many holding that the wide use 

 of the name fasciatus justifies its retention. 



While engaged in bibliographic work, the writer made the 

 discovery that there is a name for this mosquito which ante- 

 dates any of those hitherto cited by systematists, and which, 

 according to the laws of priority, will have to supplant the 

 ones now in use. Under the name Culex argenteus, the Abbe 

 Poiret, in 1787, in his "Memoire sur quelques insectes de 

 Barbarie," gave a brief diagnosis of this insect. This, with 

 the accompanying remarks, I quote herewith. 



Culex argenteus, dorsum squamis argenteis exornatum, pedi- 

 bus fasciatis. 



"Quoique cet insecte ait ete detruit dans ma collection, j'ai 

 cru devoir en donner la description. C'est le cousin le plus 

 commun en Barbarie. II est de la grosseur du notre, mais si 

 fichement pare, que je lui ai souvent pardonne ses piquures 

 pour le plaisir de I'admirer, Tout son corps, particulierement 

 le dos, est convert d'ecailles argentees, placees sur lui comme 

 autant de paillettes orbiculaires & brillantes. Ses pattes sont 

 ornees de bandes alternatives brunes & argentees." ^ 



There can hardly be a doubt that the insect thus described 

 was the yellow fever mosquito; it was evidently already well 

 established at that period in the coast towns of northern Africa. 

 The ingenuous remark of the Abbe, that he was perfectly 

 willing to tolerate its bite in order to be able to admire its 

 beauty, is most interesting. 



The name Culex argenteus seems to have altogether escaped 

 modem catalogers. We find it in Gmelin's Thirteenth edition 

 of the Linnean Systema Naturae, vol. 1, part 5, p. 2888 (1792), 

 and it is indicated in Hagen's Bibliotheca Entomologica. Much 

 as another change is to be regretted, the yellow fever mosquito 

 should now be called scientifically Aedes argenteus (Poiret). 



»Journ. de Physique, vol. 30, p. 245 (April, 1787). 



