316 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. VII, July, 1953 
Adult Characters 
In the Solomons, adults of Uranotaenia can 
be recognized superficially from all other mos- 
quitoes by the following combination of char- 
acters: small size; straight proboscis (usually 
swollen apically); pulvilli absent; squama 
bare; cell R2 always distinctly shorter than 
vein R2+3; vein lA strongly curved apically 
and ending at level of or before the separation 
of Cui and Cu2; wing membrane with minute 
microtrichia, not visible under a magnifica- 
tion of 50 X; palpus extremely short in both 
sexes (stated to be 2-segmented but not seg- 
mented in Solomon Island forms). 
Edwards (1941: 41-43) gave an excellent 
characterization of the genus in the adult 
stage. The following features noted in the 
Solomon Island species should be added. 
Head: Frontal tuft well developed in some 
species; orbital bristles (not counting frontal 
pair) often conspicuously interrupted, ar- 
ranged 1:3; palpus not segmented, composed 
of a single piece in both sexes, between 0.10 
and 0.05 of proboscis. 
Thorax: One to several propleurals; one 
posterior pronotal; one spiracular or none; 
one pre-alar; upper mesepimeral may be ab- 
sent; dorsocentral bristles strong, acrostichals 
weak to moderate, supra-alars strong. 
Legs: Male claws of mid leg with weaker 
claw sometimes almost as long as stronger 
claw, sometimes apparently absent, stronger 
claw with a tooth in U. atra; in both sexes 
apex of fore and mid tibia with specialized 
bristles and scales forming tufts or combs. 
Wing: No bristles on base of R or Sc. 
Male genitalia: Segment VIII long, forming 
a broad band at base of genitalia proper, terg- 
ite without hairs in all Solomon Islands spe- 
cies; mesosome with ventral bridge in some 
species. 
Edwards (1941: 43-44) recognized four 
groups in the Ethiopian region on the basis 
of thoracic and wing scaling and characters 
of the male genitalia. He did not attempt to 
correlate these differences with larval or pupal 
specializations. His groups B and D are not 
represented in the Solomon Islands. I have 
changed his nomenclature from group to sec- 
tion to distinguish them from species groups. 
Apparently all but one species {JJ. quadrima- 
culata) from the Solomons belong to section 
A of Edwards on the basis of adult structures. 
The section was characterized as follows: 
"Scutal scales mostly narrow but a supra-alar 
stripe of broad scales; apn scaly; wings usu- 
ally with some white scales in lines. Termi- 
nalia (where known) with tergite bare, its 
lateral corners produced into pointed process- 
es or rounded knobs; style short and rather 
stout; Ip with strong spines.” Since it appears 
that the New World species (Lane 1943: 
137-161), including the type species of the 
genus, belong to this section although form- 
ing a distinct subsection, it may be considered 
as representing the typical Uranotaenia. In the 
Old World, section A is a complex one con- 
sisting of several subsections. In the Solomons 
U. wysockii is a member of such a subsection 
differentiated from the other species chiefly 
by adaptive characters in the larva and pupa 
and appearing very similar in the adult stage. 
I propose to recognize in the Solomons sub- 
section Al for the generalized species breed- 
ing in ground water and subsection A2 for 
U. wysockii breeding in plants. 
U. quadrimaculata superficially fits into sec- 
tion C of Edwards which was characterized 
as follows: "Scutal scales all narrow, apn de- 
void of scales. Terminalia with tergite bare, 
more or less produced in middle, but not at 
corners; style long and slender; Ip with small 
spines.” Scales are present on apn in U. quad- 
rimacidata, and as far as I can determine from 
descriptions it has a much shorter cell R2 than 
any Ethiopian member of this section. In ad- 
dition the pre-alar area is not distinctly sep- 
arated from the sternopleuron, an unusual 
feature in the genus. In the immature stages 
U. quadrimaculata and related Papuan forms 
appear very distinct from the Ethiopian spe- 
cies. The type species of Pseudoficalbia belongs 
to section C, but because of these differences 
