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CHAPTER XIII. 



The Culicina Sub-family. 



This is at once the typical, and by far the largest group 

 of the CulicidcB, the type genus, Culex, including nearly 150 

 species. 



In all, the female palpi are markedly shorter than the pro- 

 boscis, while those of the male are at the least not much shorter, 

 and may greatly exceed it in length. 



Some genera, however, distinctly approach the Megarhinince, 

 and AnoplielincB even in the length of the ? palps, as these are 

 nearly half as long as the ]irohosc\s in Mucidus, and in Psorophora, 

 are fully a third of its length. 



In the typical genera, as in Culex and Stegomyia, they are, 

 however, very short and take the form of a mere pair of blunt 

 projections on each side of the base of the proboscis. The male 

 palpi vary so greatly in relative length and form that no general 

 description of them is possible. Another character that all have 

 in common is that the anterior fork cell is at least as long as 

 the hind one. 



The males are easily distinguished from those of the 

 Anophelina by the fact that they are never clubbed, at any rate 

 in the same way as those of the Anopheles. 



One or two species, notably E. spathipalpis (Eond.), have the 

 g- palps clubbed, but even in these cases the organ is not carried 

 in the same way ; as those of the Anophelina are held close 

 against the proboscis as far as the commencement of the club 

 and then diverge sharply from it at an angle of about 45° ; but 

 are kept straight or nearly so, and never habitually lie along 

 the proboscis, being kept rather away from it, generally arched 

 upwards in a graceful curve. 



It is, however, on the other hand, by no means so easy to 

 distinguish the females from those of the ^domina, and here 

 we can rely only on the more detailed, generic characters of 

 the arrangement of the scales and bristles, especially those of 

 the head and of the various regions of the dorsum of the thorax. 



