SUBFAMILIES OF CULICIDA. 9 
In the tables of subfamilies and genera given on subsequent pages 
of the present work these groups are arranged in their systematic 
sequence, but no attempt of this kind has been made in the tables of 
the species. In the lists of species the synonyms are indented. 
THE SUBFAMILIES OF THE CULICIDA. 
The family Culicide was founded by Latreille in the year 1825. He 
did not consider it as representing a higher group than a tribe. Only 
the long-billed forms were known to him. The short-billed forms 
were erected into a distinct group, Corethrine, equivalent to a family, 
by the Italian naturalist Rondani in the year 1856. Schiner, in 1864, 
regarded the Corethrine as being only a subfamily of the family 
Culicidee, and this view has been quite generally adopted by later 
writers. In the year 1883 Brauer proposed to include in this family 
the genus Diva, which Schiner, fifteen years previously, had made the 
type of a new family, the Dixide. Dyar, in 1905, proposed to unite 
the Dixide with the Corethrine, the two groups to form one family, 
distinct from the Culicide. 
That these three groups, the Dixide, Corethrine, and Culicine, are 
closely related to each other admits of no doubt. That the Corethrinz 
are much more closely related to the Culicine than they are to the 
Dixide is also very evident. Thus the larva of the latter is provided 
with a pair of fleshy anal prolegs, a structure found in some of the 
Chironomide, but never present in any of the known larve of the 
Corethrine nor of the Culicine. In the adults the auxiliary vein in 
the Dixide ends at a point opposite the root of the second vein; in the 
other two groups it is prolonged nearly one-half of its entire length 
beyond the root of the second vein. In the Dixide the posterior 
margin of the wings is provided with hairs only; in the other two 
eroups it is fringed with scales. Again, in the Dixide the antennz are 
almost bare, and are similar in the two sexes; in the Culicine, with 
a single exception, and in the Corethrine these organs bear many long 
hairs, which, with few exceptions, are longer and much more numer- 
ous in the male than in the female. It will thus be seen that the 
Dixide are sufficiently distinct to be maintained as a separate family. 
The radical difference in the structure of the mouth parts in the 
adults of the other two groups, added to the equally great difference 
in the food habits of the females, renders highly desirable their sepa- 
ration into distinct families, and we can do no better than to follow 
the lead of Rondani and consider that the short-billed forms constitute 
a family by themselves, the Corethride. With these forms elimi- 
nated, the family Culicidee becomes a very homogeneous group, char- 
acterized by long, slender antenne composed of fourteen or fifteen 
joints; a greatly elongated, slender proboscis; the presence of scales 
23581—No, 11—06 
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