36 Records of the Indian Museum-. [Voiv. X, 



genera, we are confronted in the Culicini (with which must be 

 united the Aedines, as it is clear that, though they appear to be 

 more or less natural groups, we can at present draw no satisfactory 

 line of demarcation between them) with a very extensive series 

 of closely allied forms exhibiting great variety within narrow 

 limits. 



Of over 100 groups admitted by Theobald as generic, to which 

 must be added about a dozen others of later erection, only a very 

 small number stand out clearly as valid independently of charac- 

 ters of indefinite or disputed nature, such as the exact number of 

 joints of the palpi and the relative or actual length of these organs, 

 sexually, specifically and generically, and of course apart from any 

 scale characters. 



After eliminating these few tolerably well defined genera there 

 are hardly any characters left in the remaining forms on which to 

 construct even sub-genera, and though culicidologists also consider 

 the Culcx and Aedes groups as more or less natural ones, inter- 

 mediate forms occur, which after all is not surprising. 



The original distinctions of palpi in c long, in 9 short — in 

 Culex, and short in both sexes in Aedes sufficed for the few species 

 known to the early authors, but, both by the now proved variety 

 in length of this organ within the narrow limits as thus defined, 

 and by the actual indefinite formation of its joints in man}^ 

 ' genera " these differences hold good only in a very general 

 wa3^ 



Cacoinyia and Gualteria are acclaimed as intermediate and 

 though Theobald recently puts Cacomyia with the Aedines I have 

 retained it here as of uncertain position. Theobald at one time 

 (Monog. iv, 520) regarded F inlay a and Orthopodomyia as also inter- 

 mediate, though later [I.e. v) he replaces both in his Culicinae 

 without comment, whilst Col. Alcock, one of our latest (and 

 incidentally one of the soundest) authorities on the classification of 

 this family, considers Myxosquamus, Carrollia, Eumelanomyia , 

 Acartomyia, Bancroftia, Catageopnyia, and Boycia all as " annect- 

 ant forms between Culex, Stegomvia and Aedes.'' 



Psorophora also has been adjudged intermediate, but this can, 

 at any rate considered solely as a genus, be sufficiently easily 

 recognised by its peculiar leg scales. 



Mr. Edwards divides the Culex group from the Aedes group 

 as follows: In the former the '' eggs are laid in masses, the last 

 segment of the 2 abdomen is broad and immovable, and the 

 claws in the 2 are never toothed." Genera: Culex, Taeniorhyn- 

 chus, Aedomyia. Thcohaldia, Uranotaenia, etc.; in the latter 

 group the " eggs are laid singly, the last segment of the 2 abdo- 

 men is narrow, usually completely retractile into the penultimate 

 and the 2 claws, at least the anterior ones, are nearly always 

 toothed." Genera: Muctdus, Psorophora, J anthinosoma, Ochlero- 

 tatus, Stegomyia, Aedes, etc. I regret I cannot consider any of the 

 three characters of sufficient weight, and though palpal characters 

 are also unsatisfactory, they have been adopted in the present paper, 



