19 



and the bite is somewhat annoying. It usually occurs on the wing at 



dusk I have taken this mosquito in the daytime by beating dense 



bushes where it seems to pass the day in North Wales." The same 

 writer states that A. nigripes "does not appear to come intloors," but 

 the Museum possesses a female which bit and sucked blood, and was 

 taken by Mr. F. W. Terry at Merton, Surrey, on June 6th, 1899, in a 

 bedroom at night. According to Nuttall, Cobbett, and Strangeways- 

 Pigg ('The Journal of Hygiene,' Vol. I., 1901, p. 12), in the British 

 Islands Anopheles nigripes is much more rare than either of the 

 other two species of the genus, although there is no difference in 

 the distribution of any of them. Out of 156 British specimens of 

 Anopheles from various localities, no fewer than 123 were Spotted 

 Gnats [A. maculipennis, — Plate 4), 27 belonged to A. bifurcatus 

 (Plate 3), and only six to the present species. 



The geographical range of A. nigripes is said to include Northern 

 Europe and North America. 



Anopheles bifurcatus, Linn. 

 Plate 3. 



This species, which occurs throughout Europe.from Lapland to Italy 

 and the Mediterranean, is probably generally distributed in the British 

 Islands, since it was recorded by Haliday from the north of Ireland, 

 and the localities of the specimens in the Museum include Torphins, 

 Aberdeenshire, N.B., and Penzance, Cornwall. According to Theobald 

 [op. cit., p. 198) this mosquito makes its appearance in England in 

 April and May ; a male and female were taken at Penzance by 

 Mr. F. VV. Terry on July 17th, 1901. Theobald writes that the 

 female of .^. bifurcatus attacks human beings, and is a ver\- persistent 

 blood-sucker ; " it is much fiercer than the more common A. maculi- 

 pennis" or Spotted Gnat (Plate 4). The same author adds that he 

 has found the species chiefly in the neighbourhood of woods, and that 

 malarial parasites are known to develop in it in Italy. 



