DESCRIPTION OF THE EUROPEAN PLUMED GNATS, 35 



m the female hairy. The palpi standing out, bent inwards, four- 

 jointed, the first joint short. The wings incumbent, with the wing- 

 ribs hairy, and the hinder margin with a scaly fringe. 



The head smaller than the corselet. The compound eyes crescent- 

 shaped : simple eyes, none. The antennee stretched forward, thread- 

 shaped, fourteen-jointed ; the joints longish, somewhat thick and 

 short at their origin, the two last rather longer, particularly in the 

 male ; all the joints in the male, beset throughout with plumed whirls, 

 becoming gradually shorter upwards (fig. 2) ; in the female they are 

 hairy {fig. 1). The sucker is fleshy ; the under lip (lippe) cylindri- 

 cal, with a short neck (stiel), and having two round hairy knobs at 

 the extremity (fig. 3, a, a); upper-lip (lefze) small, horny, pre- 

 senting three acute angles ; palpi (6, b) standing out, bent inwards, 

 cylindrical, hairy, four-jointed ; the first very short, the others long. 

 The corselet egg-oblong ; the back scale (schildchen) small, The 

 abdomen- slender, cylindrical, clothed with fine hairs, eight-ringed ; in 

 the male flattish at the extremity, with two hooks at the vent. The legs 

 slender, tolerably long ; in pairs close behind each other, without any 

 interval between. The poisers naked. The wings small, the wing-ribs 

 hairy, with a scaly fringe on the outer border ; the scales lancet- 

 shaped, pointed (fig. 4) ; during repose the wings lie flat on the 

 body. The arrangement of the wing-ribs (nervenlaufes) closely resem- 

 bles that of the common gnat (Culex.') 



The name of this species is derived from the word korethron 

 (xopeOpov) which means a " tuft of feathers." 



SPECIES. 



1. The Feather-Horn Plumed Gnat (Corethra plumicornis, 

 Fabricius). The back corselet (rvkkenschild) with white side-stripes. 

 Thorace vitta laterali. (fig. 5, the male.) 



Fabr. Ent. Syst. iv. 246, 58 ; Tipula (plumicornis) fusca, thorace linea laterali pedi- 

 busque albidis immaculatis. — Syst. Antl. 42, 22 ; Chironomus plumicornis. — De Geer, 

 Ins. vi. 149, 20; Tipula peristal Una) griseo-cinerea, antennis filiformibus maris 

 plumosis, corpore villoso; thoracis lateribus fascia pallido-grisea. — Gmel. Syst. 

 Wat. v. 2826, 108; Tipula Hafniensis. — Reaumur, Ins. v. tab. 6, fig. 4 — 15. — 

 Latreille, Gen. Cr. iv. 247, Corethra lateralis; Panzer, Fauna Germ, cix. 16, 

 Corethra lateralis. — Klassif. d. Zweifi. i. Aufl. viii. 1, Corethra lateralis, 34 i. Tipula 

 plumicornis, 37 s. Tipula cristallina. 



Head, feelers, and antennee, brown ; hairs of the antennae rather 

 yellowish brown. Corselet, dusky grey on the back, with three raised 

 stripes ; the inner one, which reaches from the base to the middle, is 

 divided by a long deep line ; the two others lie on the side, and go from 

 the middle to the small back scale. A white stripe immediately under 



d 2 



