202 
A Monograph of Culiciclae. . 
Legs very deep brown to black, coxae and bases of the 
femora pallid, knee-spot white, small; hind metatarsi a little 
longer than the tibiae ; fore, mid and hind ungues equal and 
simple, small. 
Wings rather dusky, densely black scaled, with sometimes 
purplish reflections, lateral scales long, rather thin; first sub¬ 
marginal cell considerably longer and narrower than the second 
posterior cell, its base much nearer the base of the wing than 
that of the latter; posterior cross-vein about twice its own 
length distant from the mid cross-vein, base of the wings pale ; 
fringe deep brown. 
Halteres with pale stem and deep black knob. 
Length .—4 to 5 mm. 
Habitat .—Northern Europe and North America. In England 
it has been taken at Penzance ; it also occurs in Scotland, and 
I have taken a few in North Wales. 
Time of capture .—July and September. 
Observations .—This is a small very dark species which occurs 
mainly out of doors. I«ts dark colour readily separates it from 
any other European species, although some bifurcatus are seen to 
be very, dark, the middle of the mesonotum is always more frosty- 
cinereous in nigripes and the veins more densely scaled. I have 
not seen a f . 
It bites very viciously, and the bite is somewhat annoying. 
It usually occurs on the wing at dusk. Meinert has described 
the larva of this species as one of his type larvae of this 
genus. 
I have taken this mosquito in the daytime by beating dense 
bushes where it seems to pass the day in North Wales. It does 
not appear to come indoors, but bites—Mr. Terry, of the 
British Museum, informs me—very viciously where he met with 
it in Cornwall. 
I should say there is little doubt that Haliday’s A. plumbeus, 
taken in the north of Ireland in July, is this species. His 
description is as follows :— 
“Thorax lead-coloured, the sides with a blachish hue; abdomen 
dusky, margins of the segments paler, feet dusky; wings obscure, hyaline, 
nervures and scales blackish. In shady situations by running waters, a 
pair in Jul}".”—(Zool. Journ. xii. 1828.) 
If this is so, Haliday’s name must stand first, and nigrig es 
sink as a synonym. 
