368 GNATS OR MOSQUITOES — CHAPTER XIII 



spot. Abdotninal segments deep metallic purple, unhanded, but 

 with triangular, whitish apical spots. INletanotum brown, with 

 two sub-median rows of small, flat blue scales, and a pair of 

 tufts of bristles at the apex. 



Head clotlied with brilliant metallic scales, showing golden in most 

 lights. Palpi bronzy, and unadorned in both sexes ; those of $ , about 

 lialf the length of the proboscis ; those of S' » resembling those of 

 Janthinosoiua ; venter yellowish. Length. — 7 to 8 mm. 



Hahitdt. — Trinidad ; in a cocoa grove near a forest. 



Genus XII. STEGOMYIA, Theob. (Monog. 1, p. 283.) 



This is one of the most natural of the uew groups of Cidicidce, 

 the members of the genus presenting an appearance that once 

 seen is easily recognised, owing to the predominance of regularly 

 arranged fiat, imbricated scales on their costume. They have a 

 smooth satin-like appearance, which is most characteristic, and 

 even the wings have a smoother and more velvety look than the 

 true Culiccs. With hardly an exception they present no other 

 coloration than jetty-black, contrasted with the purest white, the 

 latter being disposed in bands and stripes on the legs and ia 

 adornments of the thorax, which are often most elaborate. The 

 black, however, always greatly preponderates, and one or two 

 are almost entirely black. The Stegomyicz are essentially tropical 

 and sub-tropical insects and are hardly found north of 40'^ latitude. 

 One of them, S. fasciata (Fabr.), is the most widely- distributed 

 Mosquito with which we are acquainted, its colonies being found 

 all round the world. The reason of this is that the individuals of 

 this species are good sailors, being able, as I know from personal 

 observation, to make a voyage from Kurachi to Suez, now that 

 steam has made communication so much more rapid alike for 

 Mosquitoes and men. All the Indian species I have met with 

 alive are purely wet weather insects, which disappear entirely as 

 soon as the S.W. monsoon is over, in Northern India, though 

 they linger longer in the damper South. Mr. Theobald's definition 

 of the genus is as follows : — 



Stcfjomyia. — " Palpi short in the 5 , long in the J , four-jointed in 

 $ , and five-jointed in the ^. Head clothed completely with an armour 

 of broad flat scales ; mesothorax covei*ed with either narrow-curved or 

 spindle-shaped scales ; scutcllum always with broad flat scales to the 

 middle lobe, and usually with them present on the lateral lobes ; abdo- 

 men completely covered with fiat scales, banded or unhanded, but always 

 with white lateral spots. Tiie ? palpi are small, never more than one- 



