Feb., '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 73 



Notes on Culex nigritulus. 

 By D. W. Coquillett. 



In the autumn of 1902 specimens of a small Culcx were 

 received from Prof. J. B. Smith, with the statement that they 

 were bred from larvae living in the salt marshes of New Jersey ; 

 they agreed so well with the published descriptions of Culex 

 nigritulus Zetterstedt that the}' were referred to that species. 

 The recent appearance of the third volume of Theobald's 

 Monograph of the Culicidae, however, has thrown a grave 

 doubt upon the correctness of this reference, since the figure 

 which he gives of the male clasper on page 201 is very differ- 

 ent from the same organ in our species. In the second volume 

 of the Monograph, upon which the identification of our species 

 was chiefl}' based, no mention was made of the male claspers, 

 but in the remarks on this species near the bottom of page 141 

 occurs this statement : "I can detect no difference in the <? 

 ungues or any important structural detail from C. pipiens,^' 

 thus imph'ing that the claspers are like those of the latter 

 species, figured on page 134. 



Prof. Smith assures me that repeated searching by himself 

 and his assistants has failed to discover larvae of our species in 

 fresh water, it being essentially a salt-water species. Mr. 

 Theobald tells us that the specimens of nigritulus treated of 

 in the second volume of his Monograph were collected by him- 

 self " in great numbers in and over half-filled water-butts" — 

 presumably- of fresh water. The specimens upon which Zet- 

 terstedt founded his original description were from Quickjock, 

 in the northwestern part of Sweden, within the Arctic Circle 

 and over one hundred miles from salt water. 



Thus all the facts indicate that tiigritulus is a fresh-water 

 species distinct from our salt-water form ; the latter will, 

 therefore, require a new name, for which Culex salinarius is 

 proposed. The male is so similar to pipiens that, as yet, I am 

 unable to point out any distinguishing character : the first 

 joint of the claspers bears beyond the middle of the inner side 

 an irregular row of about five chiefly flattened spines, while 

 near the outer end of this row is an elongate-oval lamella. 



