﻿373 



KEVISED KEYS TO THE KNOWN LARVAE OF AFRICAN 



CULICINAE. 



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



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



When, early in the present year, Dr. A. Ingram sent in to the Entomological 

 Research Committee his collection of larvae and bred adults of Culicinae from 

 Bole, Northern Territories, Gold Coast, the writer decided to describe these as 

 soon as possible, and the opportunity seemed favourable to include a thorough 

 revision of the known larvae of the African Culicinae. The results of this 

 work are given in the following tables. The difficulties of classification might 

 have been considerable, but for the valuable pioneer work of Messrs. Dyar and 

 Knab* in America, and the present author is glad to express his indebtedness to 

 these writers, and would like to add his testimony, if any were needed, to the 

 soundness of their general classification. The paper by Weschef in this journal 

 is also very important, as it is the only one devoted to a study of the larvae of 

 African Culicidae. Figures of most of the species not illustrated here will be 

 found in it. 



All the drawings here given are made from specimens collected by Dr. Ingram 

 at Bole, and with the exception of C. invidiosus, which is figured on account of 

 an apparent confusion between that species and C. univittatus ; and of S. suyens, 

 which was very inadequately described by Gr. Patton, these larvae are here de- 

 scribed for the first time. Mr. Engel Terzi's excellent figures make descriptions, 

 apart from those in the keys, superfluous. 



Table of Genera. 



1. Siphon present ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2. 



Siphon absent ... ... ... ... ... ... Anopheles. 



2. No ventral brush on anal segment ; hairs on head reduced to one 



pair ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Eretmopodites. 



Anal brush present ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3. 



3. A lateral chitinous plate on the eighth abdominal segment^ Toxorhynchites. 

 Eighth abdominal segment with lateral comb ... ... ... 4. 



4. Siphon usually much elongated, its hair-tufts numerous (rarely 



absent or represented by single hairs) ... . . , Culex, Culiciomyia. 



Siphon short or rather short, with only one pair of hair-tufts ... 5. 



5. Hair-tuft near base of siphon ... ... ... ... ... 6. 



Hair-tuft near middle of siphon (often beyond) ... ... ... 7. 



* kt The Larvae of Culicidae classified as Independent Organisms." By Harrison Gr. Dyar and 

 Frederick Knab ; Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, XIV, 1906, pp. 169-230, pis. iv-xvi. 



f Bull. Ent. Res. I, April 1910, pp. 6-50, pis. i-vii. 



% This character also occurs in an undetermined larva of the Aedes group (see note under 

 Stegomyia sugens). In this larva, however, the comb is present in addition, which is not the 

 case in Toxorhynchites, 



