New Methods of Classification. 13 



Five new genera are here formed by Dr. Dyar ; of these one 

 Feltidia is certainly invalid, and must sink as a synonym of 

 Grabhamia, and it is very doubtful if the others should be 

 accepted, founded as they are on a single sexual character only. 

 I have retained the names, however, but give full generic details 

 in each case. 



Dr. Dyar remarks that "genitalic divisions are more natural 

 than those recently founded on scales and palpi." This, of 

 course, is a matter of opinion, but one would think that 

 characters which are common to both sexes, such as the scales, 

 would form more natural divisions than any single male 

 structure. Such we find to be the case, not only from a 

 structural, but also from the bionomic point of view. 



How can one place a female in any of the genera founded 

 on $ sexual structure only ? It is quite an unpractical method 

 of classification. Dr. Dyar tells us, that by genitalic and larval 

 characters Janthinosoma musica and Culex (Grabhamia) jamai- 

 censis should be together. More totally diverse forms could not 

 be seen. 



Messrs. Dyar and Knab have issued a long careful paper 

 dealing with the classification of Culicidae by larval characters, 

 entitled, " The Larvae of Culicidae classified as Independent 

 Organisms" (Journ. N". York Ent. Soc, vol. xiv., no. 4, pp. 

 169-230, 1906). In this paper they combat the value of scale 

 structure as characters of generic value. 



That larval characters are of great value and interest there 

 is no doubt, but to form genera and species on larvae is surely 

 unusual. In this scheme the authors divide the Culicidae into 

 three sub-families as follows : — 



Air-tube short and sessile ; a series of sub-dorsal 



palmate hair tufts on the abdomen Anophelinae . 



Air-tube elongate, at least longer than wide ; no 

 dorsal palmate hairs. 



Anal segment with an unpaired ventral brush 



or rudder of dense hair tufts Culicinae. 



Anal segment without unpaired median 



ventral brush Sabethinae. 



All other genera of Anophelinae are sunk as synonyms of 

 Anopheles, but the authors raise one species — barberi of Coquillett, 

 a species so close to bifurcatus that it is hardly separable — to 

 generic rank calling it Coelodiazesis. 



