Genus Culex 



443 



<£ . Palpi black, with a narrow pale band towards the base, 

 rather acuminate ; last two segments and apex of the ante- 

 penultimate segment with scanty black hairs. Antennae with 

 brown hairs, nodes black, internodes grey. Legs and abdomen 

 as in the female. Fore and mid ungues unequal, the larger with 

 a large outstanding tooth, the smaller with a short, acute, basal 

 tooth ; the hind claws small, curved, equal and simple. 



Genitalia with long curved claspers with small dark terminal 

 segment, and a prominent bunch of long flat sword-like bristles, 

 four in number, arising from a prominence on the basal lobe, 



Fig. 196. 

 Culex simpsoni. Theobald, (<? genitalia.) 



three much longer than the fourth. The three long ones are 

 curved at their apices ; near this tuft is a single leaf-like plate 

 pointed apically. The three long spines are not as long as the 

 claspers. 



Length, — 3*5 to 4*5 mm. 



Habitat. — Transvaal (C. B. Simpson). 



Apparently very common. Very variable in size. Its chief 

 gross characters are the thoracic ornamentation and the pale 

 apical femoral and tibial spots. The thoracic ornamentation is 

 not always distinct. In some the markings of rusty red are 

 very clear, two roundish ones in front, and two prominent lateral 

 elongated ones behind, and a median long broad one. 



The female palpi are composed of three segments, the apical one 

 very large, longer than the two basal ones, the basal the smallest. 



The male genitalia are very characteristic, the bunch of flat 

 bristles on the basal lobe being most marked ; three being long 

 and one short. 



