﻿NOTES ON THE BRITISH MOSQUITOS. 191 



would involve comparisons and discussions that would extend 

 far beyond the limits of an article in the ' Entomologist.' 



I may mention that the larva was found in the purest and 

 driest of fine sea-sand. It was brought home in a tin containing 

 some of the sand ; this was wetted and so made more solid, 

 and the larva evidently appreciated this, and burrowed in the 

 wet sand. I did not keep it long alive, as I feared it might 

 change to a pupa. I have no doubt that it is carnivorous and 

 predaceous. 



Brockenharst : May 28th, 1912. 



NOTES ON THE BEITISH MOSQUITOS (CULICIN^). 

 By F. W. Edwards, B.A., F.E.S. 



(Published by Permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



Considering the great interest now taken in the blood-sucking 

 gnats or " mosquitos," their economic importance in relation to 

 disease, the large number of workers engaged in their study, 

 and the enormous output of literature concerning them, it is 

 somewhat remarkable that so little has been written about the 

 British species. Indeed, the only attempt at a general syste- 

 matic account of them (apart from the treatment in Walker's 

 ' Insecta Britannica, Diptera' [1856]), so far as I am aware, is that 

 of Stevens, published in 1825. Needless to say, these are hope- 

 lessly out of date, and the descriptions are so meagre that it is 

 impossible to recognize to what insects they are intended to apply. 

 Thus their determination is a matter of needless difiiculty. It is 

 true that good descriptions of most of the species are to be found 

 in Theobald's 'Monograph of the Culicidae of the World,' but these 

 have to be picked out of an enormous mass of material, while 

 the keys to the genera and species which the author gives are in 

 many cases difficult of application and not of much value ; to 

 say nothing of the fact that his system of classification is not 

 accepted by other entomologists who have studied these insects, 

 and by dipterists in general. This being the state of affairs, it 

 seems as though it would be of use to give a concise synopsis 

 of the British species, taking into account the most recent 

 researches. It is hoped that the following tables and notes will 

 be found workable and helpful, and that they may be the means 

 of inducing some to take up the study of these interesting 

 insects during the present summer. There is much work yet 

 to be done before our knowledge of them approaches com- 

 pleteness : the larvae of several species are yet undiscovered, 

 and it is probable that even the number of species on the British 

 list is not yet complete. One species is introduced in the present 



Q 2 



