a handbook of the mosquitoes of north america - Systematic Catalog ...

142 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA
Acdes ccgJ!Pti, the yellow fever mosquito, occurs throughout
the tropical and subtropical regions of the wo,rld. In summer
it is often carried to the temperate regions where it can breed
till frost. The species is almost wholly domesticated and
breeds in all sorts of artificial containers about human habita-
tions where water may lodge. The adults fly by day, are fierce
biters and attack quietly, though a sharp, high note can be rec-
ognized by those who listen. They seem to prefer to attack
from behind or beneath, crawling under clothing to reach a
favorable spot for extracting blood.
AEDES TRISERIATUS Say.
C&x triseriatzz.~ Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 3, 12.
1823.
Aedes triserintus var. hendersoni Cockerell, Jour. Econ. Ent.
11, 199. 1918.
Female. Length 4-5 mm.; wing 4 mm. Proboscis slender, black.
Occiput black; the vertex clothed with narrow, curved whitish scales;
sides with broad, flat, silvery white scales; nape with numerous nar-
row, erect, forked, pale yellowish scales. Mesonotum black, densely
clothed with narrow scales, dark brown on the dorsum, silvery white
on the anterior margin and on the sides; the median brown area
widens behind the middle and is divided by the antescutellar space
which is margined by silvery white scales. Abdomen black and
each segment bears latterally a large triangular patch of white scales.
Venter white scaled, the apices of the sixth and seventh bluish-black.
Wing scales brown. Legs black, tips of femora white.
Male laypopygium. (Fig. 5, PI. XIII.) Side-pieces more than
twice as long as wide; apical lobe absent as such but it is probably
represented by a peculiar group of long setae at the distal third; basal
lobe absent but a dense grouping of rather long setae indicates its po-
sition. Clasper short, slightly more than one-half length of the side
piece. Claspette with a short cylindrical stem; filament longer than
the stem, ligulate and ending in a long point. Mesosome faintly
chitinized, cylindrical, open along the median ventral line, closed on
the dorsum and at the base. Lobes of the ninth tergite very short and
each bears three or four short spines.
La-ma. (Fig. 2, Pl. XX.) Length 8 mm. Head rounded, as wide
as long; antenna smooth; tuft a single hair, situated at the middle ;