496 GNATS OR MOSQUITOES — CHAPTER XIV 



by other parts of the insect, especially by the scutellum, the 

 bristles of which are very apt to look as if they sprung from the 

 really nude metanotum below them. It is on this account often 

 difficult to distinguish female specimens from those of Stegomyia. 

 The members of that genus, however, are seldom so devoid of 

 ornament as the species included in the present genus, so that it 

 is well to regard any very sombrely-tinted Stegomyia with sus- 

 picion, and to examine the metanotum with special care. In 

 JEdes, it will be remembered, the scutellum is clothed with curved 

 scales. 



Mr. Theobald's definition of the genus reads as follows : — 



" Head covered with flat scales ; also the prothoracic lobes and 

 scutellum ; iiiesonotum with spindle-shaped scales ; metanotum with 

 bristles on its posterior half. Palpi equal in the male and female, 

 apparently four-jointed ; antenna; fourteen-jointed, ba,sal joint of moderate 

 size ; proboscis very long and thin, often longer than the body. Wings 

 witli the basal lobe long and narrow ; fork-cells long and narrow. Abdo- 

 men unbauded, but with either apical or basal white lateral spots or 

 unadorned. Ungues of the female equal and simple." 



They have a hal)it of hovering in the air with the hind legs 

 held over their back, and their long, thin legs give them a very 

 spider-like appearance. Dr. Lutz speaks of them as " wood 

 mosquitoes," haunting damp woods near rivers or the sea shore, 

 and often breeding in water held in the cups of plants of the 

 Bromelia order, and states that the larvae resemble those of 

 Culex, but are usually brightly coloured — red, green, or bljie. 



Table of Species of the Genus Wyeomyia. 



i. The abdomen unhanded, but with pale lateral spots. 



1. W. longirostris, Theob. Abdominal lateral spots basal. Meta- 



notum black, with two large, golden-brown bristles. 



2. W. Trinidadeiisis, Theob. Abdominal lateral spots basal. Meta- 



notum with three bristles on the outer row and two behind. 

 Mid tarsi white on one side. 



3. W. discrucians, 'WiiYker. Abdominal lateral spots apical. Meta- 



notum with four bristles m two tufts, 

 ii. Abdomen unadorned. 



4. W. (iraijii, Theob. Metathorax with four bristles placed in a 



square. 



5. W. jjcrtinans (Williston). Metathorax witli a single row of 



bristles. 



6. W. aranoides, Theob. Metathorax destroyed. Base of venter 



white. 



