112 ENTOMOLOGY FOR MEDICAL OFFICERS 



abdomen being confined to the sides of the segments. 

 According to Bahr, who has made a special study of 

 the connection between insects and disease in Fiji, it 

 transmits both Filaria nocturna and the Fiji filaria. 



Mansonia, Blanchard. 



Head shaggy with curved scales (many of which are 

 broadish) and upright forked scales dorsally, and somewhat 

 outstanding flat scales laterally. Scutellum with broadish 

 curved scales. The wing-scales are all broad plates of a 

 roughly triangular shape something like the front wing of a 

 butterfly ; some of them may be merely spatulate ; as the 

 scales are generally of at least two colours — brown and whitish- 

 yellow — the wings have a speckled or mottled appearance. 

 The legs also are, usually, mottled and banded. The species 

 are found all round the globe within the tropical zone, but not 

 very far outside it ; they particularly haunt the courses of big 

 tropical rivers, but some may go into houses. Two of them 

 are known to nurse the larvae of Filaria bancrofti, namely, M. 

 uniformis and M. titillans. 



Mansonia uniformis, Theobald, 



has a wide distribution, from West Africa eastwards 

 through Madagascar, the Oriental Region, and New Guinea, 

 to Australia. The scutum is brown, without any spots ; the 

 femora are mottled but not distinctly banded ; the tibiae are 

 banded in alternate dark and white bars. 



Mansonia titillans. Walker, 



is a common South American species. The scutum is 

 brown, without any spots ; the proboscis has a fairly distinct 

 or very indistinct yellow band ; the femora and tibiae are not 

 banded, but some of the tarsal segments of the front and 

 middle legs and all the tarsal segments of the hind legs have 

 a broad yellowish-white bar at base. Mansonia pseudo- 

 titillans, Theobald, is a synonym of this species. 



