8ABETH0IDES NITIDUS 39 



Legs bronzy-brown, with violet, blue and purple reflections; in the mid legs the 

 last three or four tarsi are irregularly white beneath; ungues equal and simple, 

 small. 



Wings clothed with SoBetTies-like scales, brown, and the wing membrane with a 

 brownish tinge; fork-cells long; the first sub-marginal longer and narrower than the 

 second posterior cell, its base nearer the base of the wing, its stem less than one-half 

 the length of the cell; stem of the second posterior cell nearly as long as the cell; 

 the supernumerary cross-vein very small; positions of the cross-veins variable, as a 

 rule the mid and posterior nearly in one line and in advance of the supernumerary, 

 or all three may be in one line. Halteres dark brown; base paler. 



Length. — 4.5 to 5 mm. 



Habitat. — ^British Guiana (Low); Para (Durham); Sao Paulo, Brazil (Dr. Lutz). 



Observations. — ^A very variable species, which presents a great variety of colours 

 in different lights and when held in different positions. The cross-veins vary to 

 some extent, in some the posterior is much nearer the apex of the wing than the mid. 

 In others it is level with the mid. This species may easily be mistaken for a ? of 

 Sabethes, but the generic characters given on page 328 will suffice to distinguish It. 



Synonymy. — I have carefully examined the types of 5 remipes and 2 nitidus and 

 am sure they are the same, the former had evidently been in some liquid and so the 

 coloration of the scales had been altered, and the position of the cross-veins we now 

 know varies in this as in other Culices. 



Descbiption of Femam! of Sabethoides Niimtrs (Mai.e and Labva Unknown) : 



Female. — Proboscis long and slender, unifornij vestiture black with a slight 

 green reflection ; labellse small, rounded, with fine outstanding setae. Palpi short, 

 one-seventh as long as proboscis, slender, black, a tuft of outstanding hairs at 

 base. Antennse moderate, the joints subequal, rugose, pilose, black; tori sub- 

 spherical, with a cup-shaped apical excavation, black, whitish pruinose; hairs 

 of whorls long, moderately dense, black. Clypeus slender, elliptical, convex, 

 dark brown with a white pruinosity, nude. Byes large, contiguous at vertex, 

 black. Occiput clothed with fine shining metallic violet and blue scales, two 

 brown setse at vertex. 



Prothoracic lobes large, approximate dorsally, clothed with metallic greenish- 

 blue scales and bearing a dense row of black bristles. 



Mesonotum blackish, clothed with flat metallic blue and green iridescent 

 scales, becoming olivaceous at margins, those over roots of wings and antescutel- 

 lar region with golden and coppery luster. Scutellum trilobate, densely cov- 

 ered vidth scales similar to those of tip of mesonotum, each lobe with a small 

 tuft of brown bristles. Postnotum elliptical, prominent, dark brown, with a 

 rounded median carina, a tuft of about ten large bristles posteriorly. Pleurse 

 blackish, coxae brown, clothed with elliptical, flat silvery-white scales. 



Abdomen subcylindrical, compressed, truncate at tip which bears many black 



hairs ; dorsal vestiture metallic blue and green ; a row of pale violaceous basal 



.segmental triangular lateral spots, venter pale golden, with a medioventral 



' ridge of scales ; the green dorsal color extends well down the sides at the apices 



of the segments; first segment dorsally more brilliantly colored. 



Wings rather narrow, slightly infuscated, iridescent; petiole of second marg- 

 inal cell one-half as long as its cell, that of second posterior cell nearly as long 

 as its cell; cross- veins nearly incident; scales of veins black, with a bronzy and 

 blue reflection, elliptical, obliquely subtruncate, those on forks of second vein 

 denser and broader. Halteres blackish, except at base. 



Legs slender, the vestiture black, with a blue and violaceous reflection, the 

 femora pale golden beneath nearly to tip; mid tarsi with the apical half of the 

 second, the third, and all but the tip of the fourth joint white, a black mark on 

 under side of fourth joint ; tibiae and tarsi with coppery luster beneath. Claw 

 formula 0.0-0.0-0.0. 



Length : Body about 4.5 mm. ; wing 3.5 mm. 



