47 
Skuse says it is a day-flying species. Theobald remarks, 
*' that it is the smallest known Australian Culex. The two 
clear white spots, one on each side of the head, and its small 
size, seem to be the most characteristic features." 
It is a rare and obscure species ; looks like Culex rubithorax 
but when examined, under the microscope, it is seen to be a 
distinct species. I bred them from larvae obtained from a 
water-hole after rains at Deception Bay. Since the females 
were sent to the British Museum, I bred out males, but the male 
has not so far been described. 
The eggs and larva?, and whether it is a biting mosquito, 
have yet to be observed. 
Culex cylindricus. — Theobald (1903). 
$ . Head brown, clothed in the middle with narrow-curved 
dull yellow scales, black at the sides and with a few fiat white 
scales laterally, numerous narrow upright forked scales of a pale 
brown hue ; palpi densely scaled with dark brown scales, with 
some long brown hairs ; antennae bro wn ; proboscis black, 
expanded apically. Thorax dark brown, when denuded, 
clothed with silky dull golden narrow-curved scales, and with 
two lateral rows of black bristles, numerous black bristles over 
the roots of the wings ; scute lluni pale brown (almost testaceous 
when denuded) with narrow-curved pale scales and dark brown 
border-bristles, six large ones to the mid lobe and a posterior 
row of several very fine hairs ; pleurae slaty-grey and brown 
or bright brown with a few brown bristles and white scales. 
Metanotum deep brown. Abdomen narrow, cylindrical, slightly 
expanded apically and truncated, black, covered with black 
scales, the second to seventh segments with basal white bands, 
the scales rather more numerous in the middle of the segments, 
thus giving the bands a curved outline ; first segment testaceous 
with two median patches of dusky scales and numerous long 
brown hairs, apical segment black, bristly ; the antepenultimate 
segment rather expanded apically. Legs with pale brown 
coxae and trochanters almost grey in some specimens, testaceous 
in others ; remainder of legs deep brown, almost black, with 
bristles on the tibiae and metatarsi ; hind metatarsi about 
the same length as the hind tibiae ; ungues very small, equal 
and simple. Wings with typical Culex scales : scales brown ; 
fork-cells rather short ; the first sub-marginal cell longer and 
slightly narrower than the second posterior cell, its base just 
a little nearer the base of the wing than that of the second posterior 
cell or level with it ; its stem about half the length of the cell ; 
stem of the second posterior cell nearly two-thirds the length 
of the cell ; posterior cross-vein longer than the mid cross-vein, 
about twice its own length distant from the mid ; the scales 
on the sub-costal and first longitudinal are broader and denser 
than on the rest of the veins. Halteres with yellowish stem and 
fuscous knob." 
