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NEW SYNONYMY IN ORIENTAL CULICIDAE. 

 By F. W. Edwards, B.A., F.E.S. 



{Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum). 



For the past two years the writer has studied the Oriental Culicidae at 

 intervals, with a view to preparing a tabular synopsis of the species. During 

 this time it has become evident that a large number of names will have to be 

 rejected or changed in some way, and it seems desirable to call attention at once 

 to some of these proposed changes, as it will inevitably be a considerable time 

 before the thorough revision of the Oriental mosquitos which the writer has in 

 view can be published. The present paper is intended merely to deal with 

 nomenclatorial questions, points of systematic interest being introduced only in 

 so far as they are necessary to explain or justify the writer's conclusions. The 

 classification here indicated may be taken as approximately final, but the limits of 

 certain genera and their arrangement may ultimately require modification, while 

 their number may not improbably have to be reduced. Over 80 specific names 

 are here for the first time definitely sunk, while the probable synonymy of 8 or 

 10 others is suggested. On the other hand two new names are proposed owing to 

 the preoccupation of the original designation of the species. 



Subfam. 1. CULICINAE. 

 Tribe 1. Anophelini. 



So much systematic work has already been done on Oriental Anopheles, that 

 comparatively few questions of nomenclature remain undecided, but the following 

 synonymies appear so far to have escaped the notice* of writers on this group : — 



1. Anopheles tessellatus, Theo. 



Anopheles tessellatum, Theo., Mon. Cul. i, p. 175 (1901). 



Anopheles punctulatus, Theo. (?iec Donitz), I.e. 



Anopheles deceptor, Donitz, Zeit. fur Hygiene und Infect., xli, p. 60 (1902). 



Myzomyia thorntoni, Ludlow, Can. Ent. xxxvi, p. 69 (1904). 



Dactylomyia ceylonica, Newst. & Cart., Ann. Trop. Med. iv, p. 377 (1910). 

 This is a purely Oriental mosquito ; it is represented, however, in the Austra- 

 lasian region by the closely allied A. punctulatus, Don. I have compared a 

 specimen of M. thorntoni named by Dr. Ludlow with Donitz's description and 

 figure of A. deceptor and with Theobald's type of A. tessellatum, and find that 

 there is no room for doubt as to their identity. Dactylomyia ceylonica is supposed 

 to possess a "cylindrical-shaped tubercle or finger-like process projecting 

 obliquely from the prothoracic region," but this is probably a purely accidental 

 appearance, and though I have not examined the type I should conjecture that it 

 is formed by scales on the front margin of the mesonotum. The description of 

 D. ceylonica gives no other character by which it might be distinguished from 

 A. tessellatus, and as the British Museum possesses a specimen of this species from 



* Since this was written Dr. A. T. Stanton (Bull. Ent. Res. iv, 1913, p. 129), has given 

 A. deceptor and D. ceylonica as synonyms of A. tessellatus. 



