MOSQUITOS OF THE PALAEAKCTIC REGION. 335 



half or more of the long joint ; the scales are of peculiar shape, sharply pointed at 

 the tip and more or less widened about the middle. Lobe of side-piece of male 

 hypopygium with two flat plates. Clasper with a conspicuous spiny crest at some 

 distance before the tip, which is rather suddenly narrowed. Tips of tenth tergites 

 with the inner spines slender and sharp-pointed, the outer ones much stouter and 

 blunter. Otherwise as in Culex, s. str. 



None of the distinctions mentioned above are fundamental, and it may be doubted 

 if the subgenus is worth maintaining. The rather well-marked larval characters of 

 C. nehulosiis are not shared by the Oriental members of the subgenus. 



One species apparently occurs in the Mediterranean region ; another (C. pallido- 

 thorax, Theo.) is common in south China, and should be looked for in Japan. There 

 are other Oriental and Ethiopian species, but none in Australia or America. In the 

 New World the type is represented by Choeroporpa, Dyar. 



3. Culex (Culiciomyia) impudicus, Ficalbi. 



Cidex impudicus, Ficalbi, Bull. vSoc. Ent. Ital. xxii, p. 81 (1890), andxxxi, p. 214 



(1899). 

 (?) Culiciomyia nebtdosa (Theobald) Edwards, Bull. Ent. Res. ii, p. 254 (1911). 



I do not know Ctdex impudicus except from Ficalbi's works, but his figures of 

 the male hypopygium are so much like the structure to be found in some specimens 

 of C. nehulosus, Theo., from the Gold Coast* that I feel certain C. impudicus must 

 be a Culiciomyia closely related to the African species, and it even seems possible 

 that the apparent differences may be due to inaccuracies in Ficalbi's figures. This 

 conclusion is rendered more probable by the fact that I have examined two females 

 of a Culiciomyia indistinguishable from C. nebtdosus in the Paris Museum collection 

 from Beirut {Dr. Landricu). The species should therefore be determinable easily 

 by the characters mentioned under the subgenus. It is an almost uniformly dark 

 species, with small pale spots at the apical corners of the abdominal tergites. 



According to Ficalbi the larvae of C. impudicus were found in water-holes with 

 much vegetation used for irrigating gardens in Sardinia, and in large marshes in 

 Sicily. In West Africa C. nehidosus breeds in any small collection of water, especially 

 about houses ; it is sometimes found in tree-holes and bamboos. 



Subgenus Culex, s. str. 

 (including Neoculex, D3^ar). 



Head without any small flat scales in the middle in front. Male palpi without a 

 row of outstanding scales on the long joint. Usually 5-7 pro-epimeral bristles, some 

 smaller than others. First joint of hind tarsus as long as the tibia, or very slightly 

 longer or shorter. Side-pieces of male hypopygium without scales, the lobe well 

 beyond the middle, normally with a flat plate as well as four or five modified bristles. 

 Clasper without definite spiny crest. Larva with the siphonal tufts more or less 

 paired, not all in the mid-ventral line, no tufts on basal fourth or more of siphon. 



The members of this subgenus exliibit a fair amount of diversity, but it does not 

 seem to me that any groups are sufficiently circumscribed to be treated as subgenera. 

 Dyar's Neoculex (to which belong C. hortensis and C. apicalis) cannot be defined 

 on any larval character, while even the hypopygial characters on which it is based 

 are closely approached by C. sinensis, from which species by slight gradations (through 

 C. quasigelidus and other allied forms) the typical Culex structure is soon reached. 



* There are, I find, two definite varieties or species of Culiciomyia in Africa, distinguishable 

 by hypopygial differences. I have not yet estimated the precise relationship of these two 

 nor their distribution. If either is synonymous with C. impudicus it will of course have to take 

 Ficalbi's name, but it is perhaps more likely that the Mediterranean form is distinct. 



(4183) 2a 2 



