THE ELEPHANT MOSQUITO. 
163 
the terminal segment. There are no caudal fins, but a dense 
flattened tuft of paired strongly plumose bristles springs from th 
under surface of the posterior extremity. The mandibles are 
stout and strongly armed, the maxillae and maxillary palps small 
and inconspicuous. 
Fully grown larvae, taken from the hollow bamboo stumps, 
were usually found to be thickly encrusted with Vorticellce . 
The pupa rests with the dorsum of thorax and base of abdomen 
horizontal, the remainder of the abdomen being sharply curved 
under. Theobald’s figure ( [loc . cit.) has evidently been made from 
an ill-preserved specimen. Fig. 9 of the present paper will 
give a better idea of its natural form and posture. It is very 
robust, of a deep, olivaceous brown colour, the intersegmental 
membrane dull purple. A pair of long bristles projects forwards, 
one from the base of each eye. The caudal fins (fig. 10) are 
broadly rounded and fringed with fine short hairs. 
A living pupa placed in 4 per cent, formol lived, without 
apparent inconvenience, for twenty-four hours, when it was 
removed and killed in strong alcohol. 
The adult mosquito makes its appearance in from five to six 
days after pupation. A freshly emerged example is a truly hand¬ 
some insect, glowing with iridescent purple and blue tints, which, 
in conjunction with the caudal tufts, gives it very much the look 
of a Sesiid moth. Theobald’s description (loc, cit., I., p. 225) 
answers closely to my specimens. In fresh examples the pleurae 
are densely clothed with silvery white scales. In all my examples 
of the male the tarsi of the first pair of limbs are entirely dark. 
On the mid-leg the tarsi usually have two pale bands, but they are 
often much reduced and sometimes entirely absent. The tarsi of 
the hind limbs have always a single broad white band. In the 
female the white bands are more conspicuous and constant. The 
basal half of the front tarsi are entirely white, the mid tarsi carry 
two broad white bands, and the hind tarsi a single broad band. 
What is now recognized by Theobald as the female of T. immi- 
sericors was described and figured in his first volume under the 
name of Megarhinus gilesii. I find in my examples a broad 
purple-blue median band on the venter, not mentioned by Theo¬ 
bald. In fresh examples the thorax is densely clothed with 
bronze-green scales. 
