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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. IX, April, 1955 
rearings of one species are available. The 
adults of this complex are so similar that they 
would require a time-consuming study which 
could not be made at this time. Nevertheless, 
certain trends can be seen and with more 
adequate and more numerous material diag- 
nostic characters may become more obvious. 
The pupal material is also scanty and con- 
tributed very little to the understanding of 
the complex. Therefore this study is based 
almost entirely on larval characters, and con- 
sequently the new species described herein 
have larvae for holotypes. Much additional 
larval material as well as precise ecological 
information about breeding places is needed 
to understand this complex thoroughly. Since 
all this as well as crossbreeding experiments 
cannot be obtained in the foreseeable future, 
the results of this limited morphological study 
are presented at this time in the hope that 
they may stimulate such studies in this group. 
All the forms discussed are closely related 
and in general quite similar, therefore only 
one of them, T. melanesiensis , is figured in 
detail and the others compared with it. The 
descriptive terminology used is the same as 
in Belkin (1953a) with later corrections in 
larval and pupal chaetotaxy (Belkin, 1953b). 
This terminology does not include the ventral 
(and ventrolateral) and the dorsal (and dorso- 
lateral) hairs of the siphon which are found 
in sabethines, as well as in Culex and some 
Aedes and Culiseta. I propose to call these 
groups of hairs la-S and 2a-S respectively 
without a specific nomenclature for each hair, 
since the number of hairs in each group varies 
not only from species to species but in in- 
dividuals of the same species. It appears to 
me that the simplest explanation for the 
origin of these hairs is through duplications 
of hairs 1-S and 2-S. 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 
Composition of the Complex 
The caledonica complex has been assigned 
to the Australasian subgenus Mimeteomyia 
Theobald, 1910 (type species: M. apicotri- 
angidata Theobald, 1910 ( = T. (Af.) atripes 
Skuse), Kurunda, Queensland; monobasic). 
Edwards (1932: 76) and Lee (1946: 225) have 
designated caledonica as the typical representa- 
tive of one of the groups within the subgenus. 
I am changing their terminology from group 
to section to distinguish it from species 
group. The caledonica section is separated 
from the other sections in the adult stage by 
the proboscis being very slender and dis- 
tinctly longer than the abdomen and by the 
male palpi being about 0.7 to 0.8 as long as 
the proboscis. All the known larvae of this 
section have no comb plate and also lack 
the development of mesothoracic hair 7 into 
a spine. Four of the species assigned by Lee 
(1946: 225) to this section are not closely 
related to caledonica complex and all of them 
occur in New Guinea or North Queensland. 
The remaining three species formerly recog- 
nized, caledonica , rotumana and tasmaniensis 
(Strickland, 1911) appear to form a natural 
group. I have not seen any material of the 
latter but the descriptions of Edwards (1929: 
337-338) and Lee (1946: 267-268) are suffi- 
ciently detailed to recognize it. The adults of 
this group all have the pleural scaling con- 
fined to longitudinal bands and the disc of the 
scutum with small narrow scales and with 
several dorsocentral bristles. The larvae ap- 
pear to be all of the same general type. T. 
rotumana is extremely close to caledonica as 
understood by Edwards and differs from it in 
the adult stage only in having basally instead 
of apically placed light tergal markings on 
the abdomen and in lacking lower sterno- 
pleural bristles. For this reason I consider 
rotumana a member of the caledonica complex. 
On the other hand, T. tasmaniensis , reported 
breeding in rock pools and tree holes in 
Tasmania and the eastern portion of New 
South Wales, is strongly differentiated from 
the other forms in the adult stage by its 
ornamented legs and by having the pleura 
bare in the middle as opposed to entirely 
dark legs and pleura scaled in the middle. 
