18 The Mosquitoes or Culicidae of Jamaica. 



ally meets with it on the Lignanea Plain, and that some years it 

 appears to be absent. 



Life-history and habits. This mosquito is an ardent blood- 

 sucker. The larvae will live in any stagnant water, and will 

 nourish in an infusion of decaying animal matter. The adult is- 

 found in March, April, and May most abundantly. 



The egg. Upper surface broad. Fringe is well developed at 

 each end, represented by a beaded line at the attachment of the 

 floats. Lower surface with roughly hexagonal depressions. Floats 

 occupy middle half of ovum, and are widely separated below. 

 The egg is rather longer and narrower than that of Cellia albipes* 

 A figure of an egg-case is given. A captive female will readily 

 lay eggs, depositing about fifty at a time. These are arranged 

 side by side or in radiating groups of three or more together at 

 the edge of the water. This stage lasts forty-eight hours. 



The larva. Colour varies greatly. Dull olive green and 

 bluish grey shades prevail. The commonest type of ornamentation 

 is shown in the diagram. On the thorax is a rough V-shaped 

 mark, with its apex completed on the first abdominal segment. 

 A snowy-white shield-shaped mark with five dark spots on it on 

 the second and third segments, a small triangular one on the 

 fourth, and on the fifth an oval mark with an irregular dark 

 area in the centre. The frontal hairs are very marked. The 

 median pair are simple and long. The lateral pair are bifid, each 

 branch ending in a tuft of hairs. The palmate hairs are on the 

 third to seventh segments inclusive. The leaflets are jagged at 

 the edges, and vary from fifteen to twenty. The antennae are 

 composed of two segments. The basal are very small, the large 

 one with small scattered spines terminating in a bifurcated hair 

 and in two long equal thorn-like spines and three small ones. 

 The two large ones frequently lie side by side, and so look single. 

 In living specimens the surface of the antennal segments is 

 marked with an undulating pattern. The figure of the palmate 

 hairs (no. 35, p. 58, vol. iii.) in my Monograph should show the 

 leaflets jagged at the sides, arid the antennal spine (Fig. 36a) 

 should be double, and the outer frontal hairs bifid and tufted, 

 and there are only five pairs of palmate hairs, not six. 



Economic importance. Beyond being an ardent blood-sucker, 

 nothing is known of this insect. Probably it also is the definitive 

 host of the malarial parasites. 



