CULEX — FEET UNBANDED ; ABD. PALE BASAL BANDS 439 



scales and thiee lines of black bristles, much as in C. pipiens but 

 often showing a more or less distinct ornamentation of darker 

 lines. Abdominal segments nearly black, with straw-coloured 

 basal bands of uniform width on the hinder segments, but 

 expanding to form continuous lateral whitish lines on the second 

 and third anterior segments. Tarsal claws of ? , equal and 

 simple. Wings, with the anterior fork cell about four or four 

 and a half times the length of the stem in ? . Palpi of S' 

 proportionally shorter than in G. p)ip)icns, exceeding the proboscis 

 by but little more than their last joint. Antennte of S , almost 

 exactly the length of the proboscis ; distinctly proportionally 

 longer than in C. pip)iens. 



5 . — Head brown, covered with pale golden-brown to creamy, curved 

 scales and a few scattered black, dark brown, and occasionally ochreous, 

 upright forked scales, flat creamy-white scales laterally, and a faint pale 

 narrow border round the eyes, numerous black and brown bristles ; 

 antennae dark brown, with pale pubescence ; basal joint pale ferruginous 

 to ochreous, basal half of the second joint pale ferruginous ; palpi of 

 5 , densely covered with deep brown scales, and in some specimens, with 

 a few pale grey ones, and with numerous small black bristles ; those of 

 S , dark brown. Proboscis, covered with dark brown to violet-black 

 scales, sometimes paler in the middle, and with a pale apex. Pleurae 

 pale testaceous, with three or four white patches. Legs generally dark 

 brown, but with yellow coxae and minute knee-spots, and the undersides 

 of the femora grey. Halteres yellow, with darker knob. Venter straw- 

 coloured. Length. — About 4 mm. ; variable. 



Habitat. — Is found throughout all the warmer parts of the world; is 

 a purely domestic species, and its individuals probably must outnumber 

 those of all the rest of the family. It has much the same distribution as 

 Steg. Fasciata, but is found all the year round. It certainly occurs as far 

 North as Italy. Its larvae will breed in any water, even in concentrated 

 filth, but I have some doubts as to the identity' of these with the form 

 we meet with breedmg in tanks of clean water in gai'dens in India, 

 though it is not easy to define the differences. 



Notes. — Professor Grassi has laid great stress on this species being 

 identical with our European grey gnat, C. pipiens, and as far as I can 

 judge from the figure in his recent work, which, though small, is pro- 

 bably, being the work of so distinguished a biologist, proportionally exact, 

 he is quite right in his assertion that the material he has been working 

 with is identical with Ross's " grey mosquito." C/rt^i^'aws undoubtedly 

 occurs in Italy, and the proportions of the palpi and antennae to the 

 proboscis are those of that species and not of C. pijnens, which, how- 

 ever, is found also in Northern Italy, and probably occurs all over the 

 peninsula. It appears to me, however, that undue importance is 

 attached to points of tliis kind. Both species are very variable, and 

 Mr. Theobald's comparison of some 300 wings of C. fatigans shows that 



