GENUS ARMIGERES 385 



vibiuta, but they differ in the fonii of the male palpi which are 

 long and tapering, much as in Janthmosoma, from which genus, 

 however, they differ in the form of the head scales. 



In the B.M. Monograph, it originally included but one species, Ar. 

 ventralis (Walker) = C. obtarbans. Walker, and both Mr. Theobald and 

 nij'self have gone through various changes of opinion, as to whether the 

 specimens included in our collections should be regarded as anything fi'om 

 four to one species. We both now, however, think that there are sufficient 

 grounds for distinguishing two forms, which were sent me from Calcutta, 

 sorted roughly into species, by Major Allcock, the Superintendent of the 

 Indian Museum. In ordinary pinned specimens it may be admitted that 

 they are hard to distinguish, but wlien unrubbed, there is no particular 

 difficulty in doing so. One of these forms, with a dark thorax, paler ex- 

 ternally but quite undecorated in the middle, is undoubtedly Walker's 

 C. ventralis, which appears to be quite indistinguishable from his 

 obturbans. 1 have carefully examined the rather long series in the 

 museum collection, and though the thorax is m excellent preservation 

 in many of them, I cannot distinguish, in any one of them, the markings 

 which distinguish the other and smaller species described below, which 

 has the thorax rather elaborately, though not very conspicuously, 

 decorated, and differs somewhat in the form of the tarsal claws. 



The collection received from Calcutta was sorted into three forms, 

 one of which I thought might be identical with Skuse's C. atri])es, dis- 

 tinguished by the tarsal claws of the S^ being of nearly equal length ; 

 but this character appears to vary soiuewhat in Ar. ventralis, and in 

 any case it is quite distinct from Skuse's species, as specimens received 

 from Australia show that this is a true Culex. 



1. ARMIGERES VENTRALIS (Walker). 



Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. v, p. 144 ; iv, p. 91. = C. obturbans. 

 Plate xiv, fig. 11, Venation of wing ; 12, Tarsal claws of <y . 

 Wing veins clothed with rather scanty but intensely black 

 scales, short and close setting towards the base, and linear and 

 outspread on the outer part of the wing. Tarsi uniformly sooty, 

 smooth scaled. Thorax with dark brown ground, and the meso- 

 uotura uniformly clothed with long hair-like nearly black scales, 

 creamy at the sides. Abdominal segments with their terga 

 uniformly sooty except that of the last, which is creamy white ; 

 occasionally the corners of the ventral bands give a deceptive 

 appearance of lateral spots, but they do not really involve the 

 terga. 



Head with flat black scales, except the orbits and median and lateral 

 patches on the occiput, which are of an impure white. Antennje of <? 

 three quarters the length of the uniformly sooty proboscis, with almost 

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