^74 Mr. C. (). Waterhousc on 



LXXVI. — Ncfe on fiome British Culiciilre. 

 By Chas. O. Waterhouse, F.E.S. 



Having liad occasion to collect and make observations on the 

 larvfe of Culicida?, I was fortunate enough to rear from a larva 

 found in the New Forest a species which appears to be new 

 and of which I subjoin a description kindly drawn up for me 

 by Mr. F. V. Theobald. I also reared the male of Cule.x 

 diversus^ Theobald, which was riot previously known. My 

 attention was first directed to the larva of C. Waterhousei by 

 the length of time it remained under water without coining 

 to the surface for air. This larva, which was of a very pale 

 green, almost always rested in deep water on its back or in 

 an oblique position. The longest time I ever actually watched 

 it was half an hour; but on one occasion I was working close 

 by the aquarium for two hours, and looked at it at frequent 

 intervals. Having carefully noted its position, I feel certain 

 that it never moved during the whole of that time. This is 

 in great contrast with the larva of C. cantons, which rarely 

 remains down in the water for more than half a minute. 

 The following are Mr. Theobald's descriptions : — ■ 



Culex Waterhousei J sp. n. 



Thorax black, clothed with pale golden to creamy scales. 

 Abdomen deep brown, with pale basal bands. Palpi of male 

 brown, with yellowish mottling in places, two basal white 

 bands to the two apical segments, and two yellow bands 

 towards the base. Legs deep brown, femora and tibise 

 mottled with yellow ; metatarsi and first two tarsals of fore 

 and mid legs with narrow basal white bands ; in the hind 

 legs the white bands are broad. Apical segment of male 

 claspers witb spines ; median processes broadly expanded 

 apically. Fore and mid ungues unequal, hind ungues equal, 

 all uniserratod. 



^ . Head deep brown, clothed with rather large, creamy, 

 curved scales, long, narrow, ochreous, upright, forked scales 

 in front, with rather broader and shorter ones behind, and flat, 

 creamy, lateral scales. Palpi with the two apical segments 

 nearly the same length, deep brown, with an irregular, white, 

 scaled basal area to each, and with blackish hair-tufts; the 

 long antepenultimate segments with two broad, creamy, scaled 

 bands, the two apical segments with black hair-tufts and 

 also black hairs on the apex of the antepenultimate. An- 

 tennae with very deep brown plume-hairs. Proboscis deep 

 brown, unhanded. 



Thorax black, with rather large, curved, pale golden scales. 



