ORDER DIPTERA : THE NEMATOCERA, ETC. 59 



Classification of the Culicida. 



The elders among clipterists have been content to 

 recognise two subfamilies, namely, (i) Corethrincs, in which 

 the proboscis is short and soft, and the mouth-parts are not 

 formed for piercing, and the veins of the wings are clothed 

 with hairs ; and (2) Culicince, in which the proboscis is stiff 

 and of great length (and the mouth-parts, in the female at 

 least, are formed for piercing), and the veins of the wings are 

 clothed with scales. 



Some recent writers, however, ignoring all the common 

 features that distinguish the two subfamilies, in equal 

 measure, from other Nematocerous Diptera, and exaggerating 

 the importance of the functionally different mouth-parts, 

 have cut the Corethrincz adrift, and have given the exclusive 

 possession of the common family title to the Culicincz. Such 

 a proceeding seems to me to defeat the humane objects of 

 a zoological classification, which are to knit together the 

 morphological bonds that should unite diversely modified 

 relatives. 



Even when the most is made of the differences between 

 the respective larvae of Corethra and Culex, there still remains 

 to be weighed the fact that the larva of Mochlonyx (Fig. 18) 

 is, as Miall says, " structurally as exactly intermediate . . . 

 as can well be imagined." 



Subfamily I. — CORETHRIN^. 

 Williston gives the following synopsis of genera : — 



/■Hind "metatarsi " shorter than the following segment 

 I. \ Mochlonyx. 



vHind "metatarsi " longer than the following segment 2. 



/Small species, claws simple 3. 



I Large species (10 mm.), claws bifid Pelorempis. 



(Antennas verticillate Corethra. 



Antennas of male thickly clothed with long hairs ; of the female 

 with a basal and irregular median circlet of hairs on each 

 joint Corethrella. 



The species of Corethra are widely distributed. As in 

 Mochlonyx, the veins of the wings are clad with hairs, not 

 scales. 



