part 2] OLIGOCENE MOSQUITOES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 139 



6. Oligocene Mosquitoes in the British Museum; with a 

 Summary of our present Knowledge concerning Fossil 

 Culiclixe. By Frederick Wallace Edwards, B.A. 

 (Communicated by W. Campbell Smith, M.C., Sec.G.S. 

 Bead April 12th, 1922.) 



[Plate VII.] 



In 1916 Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell described some fossil mosquitoes 

 in the United States National Museum, from the Oligocene of the 

 Isle of Wight. The material that he described consisted only of 

 duplicates from the Brodie Collection, the main portion of which 

 remained in the Geological Department of the British Museum 

 (Natural History). When Prof. Cockerell came to England in 

 1920, he undertook the study of the main Brodie Collection of 

 fossil insects, and found in it a considerable number of mosquitoes ; 

 at his suggestion I readily undertook to work out this material, 

 and I wish to express my indebtedness to him for assistance and 

 advice. My thanks are also due to Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 F.R.S. and to Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S., for the facilities which 

 they have afforded me. The descriptions and figures of Cockerell 

 not being entirely clear, Dr. Bather obtained from Dr. R. S. 

 Bassler, of Washington, photographs of the types of Cockerell's 

 three species. These are reproduced here (PL VII), and have 

 been of great assistance in deciding upon the synonymy. 



As explained by Prof. Cockerell in a recent paper, the material 

 examined belongs in part to the British Museum and in part to the 

 late Mr. R. W. Hooley, F.G.S. In the descriptions which follow, 

 specimens belonging to the Museum are referred to by the letter I 

 and their register- number, those belonging to Mr. Hooley (but 

 deposited at the Museum) by the letter H. All the material 

 is from Gurnet Bay (Isle of Wight) from Middle Oligocene 

 deposits, and almost all was collected by E. J. A'Court Smith 

 and the Rev. P. B. Brodie. 



In addition to studying the Gurnet Bay material, I have 

 searched through the whole of the Purbeck and amber collections 

 in the British Museum, in the hope of finding mosquitoes in them, 

 but without success. I found, however, the types of several 

 Nematocera which have been referred to the Culicidse, and as the 

 study of these has yielded some interesting results, it seems worth 

 while to make some remarks about them, and at the same time to 

 summarize what is already known about fossil Culicidae. 



Jurassic Species. 



No Culicid is definitely known from the Mesozoic as yet; the 

 following doubtful forms may possibly belong to the family, but 

 more probably do not. 



