36 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NEW CULICID.E FEOM THE FEDERATED MALAY 



STATES. 



By Fred. V. Theobald, M.A. 



(Continued from p. 15.) 



MEGARININA. 



Genus Toxorhynchites, Theob. (Mono. Culicid. i. p. 244, 1901). 



TOXORHYNCHITES LEICESTERI, n. Sp. 



Thorax with metallic greeu scales, an azure spot over the wings. 

 Abdomen purple, banded with pale blue. Legs unhanded in the male, 

 banded with white in the female; last two tarsi white. 



? . Head black, covered with broad flat scales ; along the orbital 

 margin is a narrow band of scales broadening out laterally, which are 

 peacock-blue, in some lights they show purple ; the rest of the upper 

 surface of the head is clothed with metallic golden scales. Immediately 

 around the nape are a few upright forked scales, dark golden in 

 colour ; on the vertex are four golden-brown bristles. Eyes black. 

 Antennae with basal joints black, frosted, naked ; remaining joints 

 black at the nodes, brown at the internodes ; verticillate hairs black. 

 Palpi three-iointed, very short, not more than one-sixth the length of 

 the proboscis ; first joint swollen at the base and constricted, the last 

 joint small and nipple-like; scales broad, spatulate, under a hand lens 

 dark brown, in stronger light rich blue, except at the tip, where the 

 scales vary from rose-purple to a mauve according to the angle at 

 which the light strikes them. Proboscis broad at the base, long and 

 bent, covered with purple or rose-purple broad scales ; at the angle 

 the scales are golden green and some peacock blue mixed among 

 them. Prothoracic lobes small, oval, rather prominent ; thickly 

 clad with scales which are purple-blue or rose-purple as the position 

 to light is varied. Mesonotum black, densely covered with broadly 

 spindle-shaped metallic green scales ; over the bases of the wings the 

 scales are larger, longer and spatulate-shaped. (In a fresh specimen 

 the colouring is said to be like a green bottle-fly.) If the thorax is 

 examined through a lens, the central part looks dark coppery brown to 

 purple, while the sides, where the light strikes at an angle, show 

 metallic green — in other lights the scales appear bluish green or dark 

 coppery red ; at the anterior margin of the mesonotum is a band 

 of scales which appear violet, rose-purple or purple according to the 

 light, and below tliis a triangular patch of silvery scales immediately 

 behind the prothoracic lobes, and over the roots of the wings a patch 

 of peacock- blue scales and a row of short stout black bristles. 

 Scutellum densely clothed with broad, long flat scales, which on the 

 lateral lobes are of peacock blue or metallic green according to the 

 light, and on the central lobe of a dark green fringed with lighter 

 green posteriorly. Scutella bristles short, dark brown. Metanotum 

 dark brown. Wings brown in colour ; the costa and first longitudinal 

 vein clad with broad, flat scales, which are peacock blue, golden green, 

 and purple accordmg to the liglit ; the position oi the cross-veins, the 



