﻿2 F. W. EDWARDS — A SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES OF 



being developed, while other species which probably could suck blood do not do 

 so ; others only do it occasionally, and the males never. Many feed on plant- 

 juices in the adult stage, while one genus (Harpagomyia) is myrmecophilous. 



The known species of this sub-family are far more numerous than those of the 

 other two together, and they fall into three or four fairly well-marked tribes. 

 Some authors go much further than this and divide the mosquitos into ten or 

 eleven sub-families, while it has even been proposed to raise one genus 

 {Anopheles) to family rank. The tendency seems to be for the group which 

 would formerly (say fifteen years ago) have been regarded as a genus, to become 

 a sub-family, while the species become genera, and varieties — individuals almost — 

 species. The present writer follows Lt.-Col. A. Alcock in recognising four 

 tribes of the sub-family Culicinae. For these it seems better to retain the 

 names of the oldest genera rather than to coin new terms, and hence these tribes 

 are here spoken of as — 



1. Anophelini. 



2. Megarhinini. 



3. ClJLICINI. 



4. Sabethini. 



The great majority of the species belong to the Culicini, the other three 

 tribes being represented each by a single genus in the African region. The first 

 of these tribes is not dealt with in the present paper. 



Tribe Megarhinini. 



Proboscis with the apical half much thinner than the basal, and bent down- 

 wards at an angle with it. Scutellum evenly rounded. Wings long and narrow ; 

 fork-cells both very short, but the first much shorter than the second. Wing- 

 margin indented just before the termination of the posterior branch of the fifth 

 longitudinal vein, and with a small V-shaped thickening of the membrane 

 opposite this indentation. Large species, completely clothed with flat, more or 

 less metallic scales, usually blue or green. Larvae predaceous ; adults not blood- 

 suckers. 



Dyar and Knab place these insects in the Culcini, and consider them to be 

 related to Psorophora and its allies. Both groups agree in having predaceous 

 larvae, and in the head of the imago being provided with a distinct neck, but 

 these characters are very likely not indicative of relationship, and so it is 

 considered better to treat Megarhinus and Toxorhynchites as forming a separate 

 group. The predaceous habit of the larvae, with its corresponding modifications 

 of structure, has been developed several times independently. 



Genus Toxorhynchites, Theo. 



Mon. Cul. I, p. 244 (1901). 



Worcesteria, Banks, Philipp. J. Sci. I, p. 779 (1906). 



Terorntjia, Leicester, Stud. Inst. Med. Kes., Fed. Malay States, III, p. 49 

 (1908). 



The name of this genus was first published by Dr. L. O. Howard in 1901 

 ("Mosquitoes," pp. 154, 155, 235, 240), who figured the North American 



