April, '07] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 1 53 



This genus would seem to be an unusually well-marked one 

 "whose chief distinctive character is the presence of large 

 scales on the veins of the wings" (Monogr., Vol. ii, p. 173), 

 yet it is of most heterogeneous makeup. Theobald in his first 

 characterization of the genus (as Pan oplit 'es, 1. c. ) states that 

 " the abdomen of the female is usually blunt," thus implying 

 that his genus includes species in which the female abdomen 

 is tapering. This difference is a fundamental one and certainly 

 indicates different genera. Neveu-Lemaire (Bull. Soc. Zool. 

 de France, xxxvii, p. 173), figures the receptacula seminis of 

 Mansonia uniformis of India, and shows that there are two of 

 these pouches in this species. Preparations of our American 

 Mansonia titillans and M. signifer show three of these recepta- 

 cula. Moreover, none of the many preparations of American 

 mosquitoes of nearly all genera which I have had opportunity 

 to examine show the same number indicated by Neveu-L,e- 

 maire for M. uniformis. With the exception only of Anophe- 

 les, Megarhinus and Uranotaenia, which have a single recepta- 

 culum seminis, all our American mosquitoes show three recep- 

 tacula seminis. 



Neveu-Lemaire states that the eggs of Mansonia are pro- 

 longed into a neck at one end, evidently drawing his data from 

 an Old-World species. Of our American Mansoniads we know 

 the eggs of M. signifer only, and these are covered by a film 

 which projects in the form of a curious surrounding rim, un- 

 like any other known mosquito eggs. We know nothing of 

 the structure of the larvae and male genitalia of the Old- World 

 forms of Mansonia, but from the above data it is sufficiently 

 obvious that the New- World species are not congeneric with 

 them. 



The accompanying figures of the wings of Mansonia fascipes 

 Coq. and M. signifer Coq. offer a striking illustration of how 

 misleading the wing-vestiture is which has been made the basis 

 of the characterization of Mansonia. In spite of the great dif- 

 ference in the appearance of the wing-vestiture, the two spe- 

 cies are very closely related, and by the structure, not only of 

 the adults, but also of the larvae and the male genitalia, are 

 congeneric. The larvae of the two species are practically iden- 



