﻿SOLOMON ISLANDS TRIPTEROIDES — BELKIN 225 



and pupal skins, 2 5,39 (625), Kokumbona River, August 24, 1944 

 (M. Cohen, H. F. Sexauer) ; 5 5 , 6 $ (659-1) , Bonegi River, September 

 25, 1944 (F. B. Wysocki, V. R. Roa) ; 1 $ (747-2), Lunga River, No- 

 vember 20, 1944 (M. Cohen) ; 2 5 , 1 9 (755), Matanikau River, No- 

 vember 21, 1944 (M. Cohen, V. R. Roa) ; 1 9 (764-4) Matanikau River, 

 December 2, 1944 (JNB) ; 1 5 , 1 9 (784-1), Wright's Creek, Matani- 

 kau, December 20, 1944 (M. Cohen, F. B. Wysocki) ;1$ (819) La Sage 

 Creek, January 15, 1945 (F. B. Wysocki, J. J. Cuccio, C. S. Hollings- 

 head) ; 1 9 (822-2) Lunga River,' Januarys 17, 1945 (JNB) ; 1 5 , 1 9 

 (938-1), Wliite River, April 7, 1945 (M. Cohen). Paratypes to be 

 deposited in the collections of Cornell University; British Museum 

 (Natural History) ; U. S. National Museum ; and Council for Scientific 

 and Industrial Research, Canberra, A. C. T., Australia. 



This species is named in honor of Prof. Robert Matheson, who has 

 kindly encouraged and directed my interest in mosquitoes. 



Taxonomic discussion. — Paine and Edvrards (1929) reported this 

 species from the Solomons as T. filipes (Walker). Edwards in the 

 same paper described and figured a larva under that name. There is 

 little doubt that these authors were dealing with mathesoni, as the 

 larval description agrees very well with the concept of the present 

 species except for minor details. The discrepancies noted may be 

 due to the probable inclusion of T. stonei larvae in the material from 

 which the description was made, since Edwards had specimens col- 

 lected "on one occasion only, in water in leaf-axils of a large wild Aroid 

 and in leaves on the ground in forest at Ilu, Guadalcanar." T. mathe- 

 soni has been collected only in Colocasia and Alocasia sp., while stonei 

 is a general breeder in small water receptacles. In his monograph 

 of the Australasian THpteroides, Lee (1946) has applied Walker's 

 name to a species of similar appearance occurring commonly in New 

 Guinea and in North Australia. T. mathesoni is distinguished from 

 fUipes as defined by Lee (1946) by the relatively longer hind tibiae 

 in the adults (0.9 of middle tibiae in mathesoni and 0.75-0.78 in 

 filipes)^ by the shallow, wide emargination and the broad lobes of the 

 ninth tergite in the male (emargination is deep and narrow, the lobes 

 are longer than wide in filipes), and the shorter maxillary spine in the 

 larva ( longer than the body of the maxilla in filipes ) . Larval habitats 

 differ also, mathesoni breeding in the leaf-axils of Colocasia and 

 Alocasia sp. and filipes in Nepenthes pitchers. 



T. mathesoni closely resembles all the other members of the filipes- 

 group of the subgenus Rachisoura. This group is characterized by 

 the following features : Unornamented femora, only broad wing scales 

 on the dorsal surface of all veins, and a single posterior pronotal 

 bristle in the adults, and an enlarged, elongate maxilla with long 

 terminal spines in the larva. Lee (1946) recognizes seven species in 



