ACCOUNT OF THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF 



THE MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AND 



MIDDLE AMERICA AND THE 



WEST INDIES. 



Tribe SABETHINI. 



The proboscis is well developed, sometimes with a central transverse suture in 

 the male. Eyes large, sometimes excessively so, becoming contiguous on the 

 vertex and produced forward to touch the clypeus. Palpi always small in the 

 female, the joints more or less reduced in number; usually also short in the male, 

 though in some forms about as long as the proboscis. Antennae with the joints of 

 the shaft subequal in the female, all but the last two sometimes shortened in the 

 male, although not to an extreme extent, and frequently very similar to the 

 antennae of the female. Vertex with a pair of very large and coarse bristles 

 inserted near ocular angles and projecting forward and downward. Vestiture 

 of scales well-developed, the occiput smoothly scaled, the erect forked scales 

 either absent or condensed into a collar-like row on the posterior margin of the 

 occiput. Mesonotum without setae on the disk, the setae present only along the 

 margin or over the roots of the wings. Postnotum with a group of small setae 

 on its posterior portion. Abdomen subeylindrical or compressed, the tip bluntly 

 rounded, the terminal setae usually abundant. Wings moderate, the veins well- 

 scaled, but without any diversity or pattern of markings. Legs usually long, 

 sometimes distinctly long, in some instances decorated with outstanding scales 

 in the form of fringes or "paddles"; claws generally simple in both sexes, 

 always so in the female, sometimes with teeth or serrations in the male. Colora- 

 tion generally more or less metallic, often brilliantly blue. The images hold 

 their legs in a peculiar and very characteristic manner, both when at rest and 

 during flight. The hind legs are raised above the body and bent forward so 

 that the ends of the tarsi approach the head. 



The larvae are at once distinguishable from those of all other Culicidae by the 

 absence of the median ventral brush of the last abdominal segment. This brush 

 is represented by a pair of hairs or hair-tufts, placed laterally below the dorsal 

 plate of this segment. The larvae present a characteristic appearance, both in 

 form and coloration. The latter is always pale yellow throughout, relieved only 

 by a dark margin of the foramen of the head and sometimes a dark margin of 

 the dorsal plate and base of breathing tube. The head is broad and flattened, 

 rounded in front and widest posteriorly. The antennal shaft is small, slender, 

 and smooth. The mouth-brushes are dense but never as long and abundant as 

 in most culicines. The small accessory eye-spots alone are visible until shortly 

 before pupation. The thorax is broad, quadrate. The lateral hairs of the body 



19 



