422 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



CULEX MUTATOR Dyar & Knab. 



Culex mutator Dyar & Knab, Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc., xiv, 207, 216, 1906. 

 Gulex mutator Dyar, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vlii, 17, 1906. 



Obiqinal Desceiption of Ctjlex mutator: 



Antenna with the tuft near the outer third, pale at base; upper head tuft of three, 

 lower single; body pilose. Air tube 5X1, tapered, five or six tufts along the posterior 

 margin, the basal one longest; pecten long, but not Immoderately so. 



Collected by the junior author at Cordoba, Mexico, In puddles in a ravine. The 

 adults were named " Melanoconion humilis Theob." by Mr. Coquillett, but we see no 

 reason to accept this determination. M. humilis was described from Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil. 



The following is an abstract of the table : 



1. Antennae with the tuft outwardly placed, the part beyond slender. . 5 

 S. Air tube four times as long as wide or over 7 



7. Anal appendages four, normal 8 



8. Air tube with four to ten paired tufts along the posterior line in a 



straight row, none displaced, or the hairs obsolete or absent. 18 



18. Air tube without a crown of spikes, smooth throughout 19 



19. Air tube with long well-defined tufts 20 



20. Body spicular-pilose 21 



21. Five tufts on tube with the basal one very long, the rest progress- 



ively shorter; abdominal hairs in threes on segments 3 to 5. 23 

 23. Upper head hair triple; tufts of tube long, the basal one over half 



the length of the tube mutator 



Descbiption of Femaie, Male, and Laeva of Cxxlex mtjtatok: 



Female. — Proboscis slender, enlarged apically, vestiture black with bronzy 

 luster, labellse conically tapered; setae minute, curved, black, those on labellae 

 more prominently outstanding. Palpi short, about one-fifth as long as pro- 

 boscis, uniform, dark brown, a few outstanding hairs at base. Antennae mod- 

 erate, joints subequal, rugose, coarsely pilose, black, second joint slightly longer 

 than third; tori subspherical, with a cup-shaped apical excavation, luteous, 

 brown within. Clypeus rounded triangular, convex, brown, nude. Occiput 

 blackish, clothed with narrow, curved brown scales on the vertex, intermixed 

 with erect, short forked shining brown ones, a large patch of flat, deep bronzy 

 brown scales on the sides and along margins of eyes to vertex, a patch of flat 

 white scales well down the sides ; a row of coarse black setae along margins of 

 eyes. 



Prothoracie lobes elliptical, remote dorsally, clothed with pale scales and 

 black bristles. Mesonotum dark brown, clothed with small, narrow, curved 

 bronzy-brown scales; bristles long, coarse, black. Scutellum trilobate, with 

 similar vestiture to mesonotum, but with a whitish reflection, each lobe with a 

 tuft of black bristles. Postnotum elliptical, dark brown, nude. Pleurae dull 

 brown mottled with blackish, coxae luteous, with a few flat white scales, and 

 rows of pale brown bristles. 



Abdomen subeylindrical, truncate at tip ; dorsal vestiture black with coppery 

 and blue reflections ; segments, except the first, with narrow, dull silvery-white 

 basal bands, first two interrupted at the sides, the others continuous, joined to a 

 row of lateral, basal, segmental, triangular white patches ; venter banded with 

 coppery black and dull white, the basal thirds of the segments white; bristles 

 on tips of segments coarse and pale, dense at tip of last segment. 



Wings moderate, hyaline ; petiole of second marginal cell about one-fifth as 

 long as its cell, that of second posterior cell much shorter than its cell ; basal 

 cross-vein distant rather more than its own length from anterior cross-vein; 

 scales of veins bronzy brown, costa with a blue reflection, outstanding scales on 

 second to fourth veins towards tip of wing denser and narrowly ovate. Halteres 

 whitish, the knobs darker. 



