PSYCHE. 



AN INTERESTING BLOOD-SUCKING GNAT OF 



CHIRONOMIDAE. 



THE FAMILY 



TYLER TOWNSEND, LAS CRUCES, N. MEX. 



While breaking camp the past sum- 

 mer, on the Continental Divide in 

 western New Mexico, at a point about 

 6 miles west of Patterson, in the western 

 part of Socorro county, I noticed a 

 small gnat in some numbers on the 

 horses. This was on the morning of 

 June 21st. The gnats were very small 

 and black, but their abdomens being 

 distended and swollen with blood gave 

 them a red appearance. They were 

 found mostly on the head and face, par- 

 ticularly around and below the eyes of 

 the animals. A few specimens were 

 hurriedly put in alcohol at the time. 

 The altitude of this place was something 

 over 7000 feet. 



Quite recently, while attempting to 

 determine these gnats, I found at first 

 some difficulty in satisfying myself as to 

 their family position. I believe now, 

 however, that they properly belong in 

 the Chironomidae. In their venation, 

 they much resemble the section Anare- 

 tina, provisionally located by Loew and 

 Osten Sacken in the Cecidomyiidae. 

 The hind tibiae, however, have distinct 

 terminal spurs, which is about the only 



character that would exclude them from 

 that section. In this character, they 

 would approach the Mycetophilidae, 

 but the venation (see PI. S, fig. 2) is so 

 decidedly cecidomyiid in its character 

 as to preclude this idea. There are 

 six longitudinal veins, the fifth vein is 

 forked, and the fourth is to the best of 

 my perception also forked ; there are no 

 cross-veins whatever. In their general 

 aspect, and the consensus of their char- 

 acters, they approach the genus Cerato- 

 pogon of Meigen ; and also the genus 

 Oecacta of Poey, which latter was 

 erected for a small blood-sucking gnat 

 in Cuba, known to the inhabitants of 

 that country as "El jejen." The an- 

 tennae of the present form are 13-jointed 

 (9), and the palpi are only 3-jointed 

 (see fig. 1 of plate). While the vena- 

 tion is more cecidomyiid than that of 

 Oecacta, the general form of the body, 

 as well as that of Ceratopogon, is quite 

 the same. The lancets and labium are 

 much the same in structure. The palpi 

 are quite similar, except that Oecacta 

 may be said to have two additional 

 joints more at the end, and Ceratopogon 



