﻿208 PROCEEDIIvrGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. loo 



The male genitalia were prepared and stained according to Komp's 

 method (1942). Then they were dehydrated and dissected in cel- 

 losolve and mounted in euparal. 



DESCRIPTIONS AND TERMINOLOGY 



In the course of this work it was found that many species are 

 practically unrecognizable from the original descriptions, and so, 

 since this genus is still very poorly known, the descriptions are drawn 

 up as completely as possible to facilitate comparison with any new 

 species that may be discovered in the future. Wherever individual 

 rearings were available, the holotype and allotype have associated 

 larval and pupal skins. The descriptions are based not only on the 

 holotype but also on the study of the entire type series. Under the 

 section on "Variation"' any marked differences in topotypic material 

 are first noted and then those found in material from other islands. 



In the adults the terminology used by Edwards (1941) is used 

 throughout. For the male genitalia I prefer to follow Matheson 

 ( 1944) . For the larva different terminologies are used : For the dorsal 

 head hairs the system devised by Edwards and Given (1928) is 

 adopted, for the ventral head hairs the system used by Marshall 

 (1938), for the terminal abdominal segments the system of Barraud 

 (1934) is followed. For the pupa I prefer to follow the older systems 

 as modified by Edwards (1941) rather than the standardized termi- 

 nology recently proposed by Rozeboom and Knight (1946) for 

 anophelines and used by KJtiight and Kozeboom (1945) previously 

 for culicines, since the older system is simpler to use. 



TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS 



In addition to the various characters used by previous workers in 

 this genus, a number of new ones were found to be useful in the present 

 study. In the adults the presence and number of hairs on the terminal 

 segment of the palpus of both males and females are used to separate 

 three species of Rachisoura. The number of propleural bristles may 

 prove to be of generic value, as in the forms from the Solomons all 

 Tripteroides s. s. examined had only one propleural bristle, while 

 members of Rachisoura and Mimeteomyia invariably had a group of 6 

 to 10 hairs. The relative length of the two apical segments of the male 

 antenna may be of value also. The male genitalia appear to offer 

 characters for the separation of Tripteroides s. s. from the others. 

 Only in this subgenus are hairs absent from the basal portion of the 

 sidepiece on the dorsal surface and the basal lobe is farther removed 

 from the base and is more prominent. In the larvae the ventral head 

 hairs may prove to be of considerable value, particularly the position 

 of the submental hair. Brug (1934) figured ventral surfaces of the 

 heads of all larvae described by him but did not use any of the char- 



