A SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THE MOSQUITOES 
OF BRITISH GUIANA. 
By Rev. Jas. Arken, M.A. 
Tn no branch of Natural Science has progress been made with greater rapidity 
than, in recent years, has marked theadvance of the knowledge of Economic 
Entomology, more especially in the tropical regions under occupation by white 
men. With respect to mosquitoes a whole new fauna quite startling in its 
dimensions has been displayed, and the collaboration of the Pathologist and 
Enomologist has resulted in the detection of many homicidal criminals winged 
with death, and the exposure of their dark and subtle methods of attack. So 
much has been done that it is already possible for authoritative writers to speak of 
“the prospect of the complete conquest of man over the insect pest in the West 
Indies ~ (“ Health Progress and Administration in the West Indies,” p. 40, 
1910, Sir R. Boyce) and to pronounce, as the same distinguished authority has 
done, that the gravest scourge of man in the Tropics, Yellow Fever, is now 
so perfectly under medical and sanitary control that its terrors are a thing of 
the past. 
In British Guiana in recent years a not altogether contemptible contribution 
has been made to knowledge in this department. Beginning with Drs. Rowland 
and Low in 1899 and 1900 collections have been made over a considerable 
area of the Guianas, of the colony and in some few places in the highlands of the 
interior. The workers, including with the above named Drs. Ozzard and Wall- 
bridge and in recent years Drs. Wise and Minett and Mr. H. W. B. Moore have 
however been few and, in recording as [ shall attempt to do the present position 
of the knowledge of Mosquitoes in British Guiana, it is with the certainty that 
the number of species still to be discovered is probably greater than that hitherto 
worked out, and the hope of helping some to begin work of the sort required. 
A comprehensive synoptic table of the mosquitoes of the world wears to the 
tyro a rather discouraging appearance. The science indeed has reached dimen- 
sions quite alarming with its 180 genera and in the genus culex alone 194 species, 
and it is possible that an intending inquirer’s first glance might be his last if he 
were not assured that his own efforts in any particular region do not demand 
preliminary knowledge quite so encyclopedic as the mastery of all this detail 
would imply. 
In Guiana so far only thirty genera with sixty-one species have been identified, 
and the diagnosis of these is for the most part possible to any one with an observ- 
ant eye, a fairly efficient coddington lens and the patience of the naturalist. 
The synoptic tables which follow are intended to smooth the way of any such 
and together with the articles which have appeared in the B. G. Medical Annuals 
of 1905, 6 and 8 and some further detailed descriptions which the grace of the 
Editors of “ Timehri” may allow me to publish, should make a good beginning 
this very useful study comparatively easy, 
