Genus Culicada. 



339 



Fig. 124. 



Culicada minuta. 



n. sp. (Base of 



antenna.) 



basally ; antennae brown, the basal segments paler in colour, the 

 second and third thick and short. 



Thorax clothed with golden and golden brown scales, giving 

 it a tessellated appearance ; scales somewhat paler in front of the 

 scutellum ; chaetae dense and deep rich brown ; 

 scutellum paler than the mesonotum, with narrow- 

 curved pale creamy scales and eight deep brown 

 border-bristles to the mid lobe ; metanotum brown. 



Abdomen deep brown, the second to sixth 

 segments with broad basal white bands, the sixth 

 with a band of yellow scales apically, and the 

 seventh with many yellow scales over its surface : 

 basal segment with two patches of white scales ; 

 border-bristles pale golden; genital lobes deep 

 black ; venter mainly white scaled. 



Legs brown with ochreous reflections ; on the 

 fore legs the tibiae have small apical and basal 

 pale areas, and there are traces of pale tarsal 

 banding ; in the mid the tibiae, first and next two 

 tarsals have narrow basal yellowish bands, and on the hind 

 legs the banding occurs at all the joints, but is narrow ; fore and 

 mid ungues equal and uniserrate ; hind equal and simple. 



Wings with the fork-cells short, the first sub-marginal longer 

 and narrower than the second posterior, their bases nearly level, 

 stem of the former nearly as long as the cell, of the latter the 

 same length as the cell ; posterior cross-vein about one and one- 

 fourth its own length distant from the mid ; lateral vein-scales 

 long and thin. 



Halteres pale ochreous brown. 



Length. — 4 mm. 



Habitat. — India (Dr. Christophers). 



Observations. — Described from a perfect J . It at first sight 

 looks like a small Grabhamia, but an examination of the wings 

 at once disproves that. It can be told from all other Culicines 

 by the abdominal ornamentation, taken in conjunction with the 

 adornment of the thorax. 



The antennae present a rather peculiar structure, the two 

 first segments of the flagellum being very short and thick, and 

 the lateral vein scales are somewhat longer and narrower than in 

 the typical Culicada, but it approaches that genus so closely I 

 have not excluded it. 



z '1 



