SIX NEW SPECIES OF CULICID^ FROM INDIA, 193 



? . Head black, with a narrow median line on the nape, and the 

 borders of the eyes snowy white. Antennte dark brown, slightly 

 shorter than the proboscis, which is black throughout. Palpi about 

 one-fifth the length of the proboscis, black with white tips, and some 

 white spotting at the articulations. Thorax black, elaborately adorned 

 with very narrow white lines, consisting of a median, bifurcating 

 behind, two short straight anterior lateral lines, and outside these a 

 pair of long sigmoid-curved lines, in the external hollow of which are 

 yet another pair of slightly curved lines, occupying the two middle 

 fourths of the area. The posterior border of the metanotum is armed 

 with strong bristles. The wings much resemble those of C. albopictus,'^' 

 and are fully the length of the abdomen, hyaline, the veins clothed 

 with linear black scales ; axillary vein joining the costa a little before 

 the tip of the posterior branch of fifth longitudinal, and just short of 

 the base of the anterior fork-cell ; supernumerary and middle cross- 

 veins nearly equal, joining at an oblique angle ; each rather longer 

 than the posterior transverse, and placed twice the length of the latter 

 outside it, and nearly opposite the tip of the sixth longitudinal ; pos- 

 terior transverse placed less than one-third along the anterior branch 

 of fifth longitudinal ; anterior fork-cell longer and slightly narrower 

 than the posterior, their bases nearly opposite. Legs black, with 

 delicate white lines on the sides of the femora and tibiae, but no distinct 

 knee spots ; the tarsal joints have minute white bands both at base 

 and apex, ccmbining to form a still narrow ring on the articulation, 

 that on base of first tarsal joint often involving the tibia ; in the fore 

 legs the upper two, in the middle the upper three, and in the hind all 

 articulations are so ringed. Abdomen black, with very narrow basal 

 white bands of perfectly uniform width, so that it is easy to mistake 

 their position, and to take them as on the hinder border of segment. 

 They are best marked in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth segments ; the 

 first abdominal segment has the dorsum covered with a peculiar beak- 

 like backward-projecting plate of the scutellum, armed with a radiating 

 tuft of strong bristles. Length of wing, 3-1 mm. male to 5 mm. female. 



Hah. The Lower Himalayas, 6000-8000 feet (Bakloh'n 

 Punjab, and Naini Tal). Not common, but occasionally enters 

 houses and bites. 



I have met with the larvse in very shallow depressions in the 

 cemented gutter round a house, in the bottom of which was only 

 a little sand just tinted with green algse, in perfectly clean rain- 

 water. They are about 8 mm. long, and very dark tinted, the 

 head being so black that the eyes cannot be distinguished. The 

 antennae are very short, and, with the exception of some terminal 

 specialized short bristles, are almost naked, and not, as usual, 

 indistinctly two-jointed, with tufts at the constriction. The 

 spiracle is extremely short, not half as long as the anal tubercles, 

 and no longer than an average abdominal segment. With the 

 exception of the large thoracic tufts, the bristles are not dis- 

 tinguishably compound. In the water they hold themselves 



-■= This is synonymous with Walker's C. scutellaris ; both come in my 

 new genus Stegomyia (F. V. T.). 



