Genus Cycloleppteron. 55 



Cycloleppteron grabhamii. Theobald (1902.) 



Mono. Culicid. I., p. 205 (1902), II., p. 312 (1902), and III., p. 56 (1903); 

 Mosquitoes of Jamaica, p. 17 (1905), Theobald ; Class. Mosq. N. and 

 Mid. America, p. 13, Tech. Sc. 11, Bu. Ento. U. S. Dep. Agri. (1906), 

 Coquillett. 



New locality. — Cuba. 



Life-history and habits. — This mosquito is an ardent blood- 

 sucker. Some years, Dr. Grabham says, it appears to be absent 

 on the Lignanea Plain, where he occasionally meets with it. The 

 larvae will live in any stagnant water, and will flourish in an 

 infusion of decaying animal matter. The adult is found most 

 abundantly in March, April, and May 



The egg. — Upper surface broad. Fringe is well developed at 

 each end, represented by a beaded line at the attachment of the 

 floats. Lower surface with roughly hexagonal depressions. Floats 

 occupy the middle half of the ovum, and are widely separated 

 below. The egg is rather longer and narrower than that of Cellia 

 albipes. A captive female will readily lay eggs, depositing about 

 fifty at a time. These are arranged side by side or in radiating 

 groups of three or more together at the edge of the water. This 

 stage lasts forty-eight hours. 



The larva. — Colour varies greatly. Dull olive green and 

 bluish grey shades prevail. The commonest type of ornamentation 

 is shown in the diagram. On the thorax is a rough Y-shaped 

 mark, with its apex completed on the first abdominal segment. 

 A snowy- white shield-shaped mark with five dark spots on it is 

 seen on the second and third segments, a small triangular one on 

 the fourth, and on the fifth an oval mark with an irregular dark 

 area in the centre. The frontal hairs are very marked. The 

 median pair are simple and long. The lateral pair are bifid, each 

 branch ending in a tuft of hairs. The palmate hairs are on the 

 third to seventh segments inclusive. The leaflets are jagged at 

 the edges, and vary from fifteen to twenty. The antennae are 

 composed of two segments. The basal are very small, the large 

 one with small scattered spines terminating in a bifurcated hair 

 and in two long equal thorn-like spines and three small ones. 

 The two large ones frequently lie side by side, and so look single. 

 In living specimens the surface of the antennal segments is 

 marked with an undulating pattern. The figure of the palmate 

 hairs (Fig. 35, p. 58, vol. iii.) in my monograph should show the 

 leaflets jagged at the sides, and the antennal spine (Fig. 36a) 



