POSITION AND TERMINOLOGY OF THE CULICID^ 7 



be observed that the terms used by Dipterologists are 

 broadly the same as those used by entomologists generally, 

 with such modifications and additions as are required by the 

 special peculiarities of the Order. Unfortunately, neither 

 among the former nor the latter is there any agreement 

 as to the terms employed. It would be impossible, in any 

 moderate compass, to cover even the practice of the best 

 known authorities, and without expressing any preference 

 for Loew's terminology over that adopted by other 

 authorities, it represents, I thmk, better than that of any 

 other author what may be called the average practice in the 

 matter, and on this account the definitions given below are, 

 to a great extent, quoted verbatim from his " Monographs 

 of the Diptera of North America," published by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Washington, 1862. 



In the systematic portion of this book, except where 

 the original descriptions have been transcribed or translated 

 as they stand, Loew's terminology is adopted, except for 

 the wing, for which Skuse's nomenclature is followed. 



As in all typical msects the body of the dipterous i7nago 

 is divided into the three regions of the head, thorax and 

 abdomen. In the first two of these the component somites 

 are so soldered together that their limits can hardly be 

 distinguished, but in the abdomen the segments are clearly 

 separated. 



The entire external surface is covered with a chitinous 

 investment, which is in all sufficiently dense to afford 

 efficient protection to the internal organs and a firm attach- 

 ment to the muscles that move the various parts, and in 

 many families forms a veritable coat of armour. 



This chitinous coating is always, to a greater or less 

 extent, covered with an armature of chitinous processes in 

 the form of hairs, spines or scales, and where these are so 

 closely arranged as to form a more or less uniform covering, 

 they are spoken of as a tomentum. 



In the Culicidce all three of these forms of armature 

 are well represented, but its characteristic feature is the 

 abundance of scales, which in most genera thickly cover the 

 entire body, and in almost all cases the decorations of gnats 



