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

CULICINI
ter is passed in the egg stage in bottom lands subject to spring
or summer flooding. The larval period is about three weeks.
Mating takes place shortly after emergence and the eggs are
deposited about a month later. This is one of the most abun-
dant and annoying species in the river valleys of British Co-
lumbia. It is recorded as very blood thirsty, invading houses,
and attacking man and domestic animals.
AEDES THIBAULTI Dyar and Knab
Aedes tlzibnzdfi Dyar and Knab, Proc. Ent. Sot. Wash. 11, 174.
1910.
Female. Length 5.5-6 mm. ; wing 4.5 mm. Proboscis black. Oc-
ciput black, a median stripe widening posteriorly on the nape, of
yellowish scales ; sides with broad, appressed dark scales; cheeks
and a narrow line along margins of the eyes, white scaled; long, nar-
row, erect, forked, brownish-yellow scales numerous on the occiput
and nape. Mesonotum black, a wide median stripe, broadening at
the middle of the mesonotum to include the whole dorsal surface,
of very small bronzy-black scales, the sides on the anterior half and
a very narrow line around the antescutellar space of yellowish to
golden scales. Abdomen black scaled with a bluish reflection; seg-
mental white bands lacking but with lateral, basal, triangular areas
of yellowish-white scales. Venter clothed with yellowish-white scales.
Legs black, the under surface of the femora to slightly beyond the
middle and tips white scaled. Wing scales black or brownish-black.
Male hypopygium. (Fig. 2, PI. XV.) Side-pieces more than
twice as long as wide; apical lobe short, rounded, nearly bare, with a
few short setae on the ventral face; basal lobe short, rounded, clothed
with numerous long, spine-like setae. Clasper long, medianly ex-
panded and clothed on the inner face with numerous short setae.
Claspette with stout, short, densely setiferous stem; filament inserted
before the apex of the stem, broadly expanded beyond the base with
a stout, blunt angulation before the middle and terminates in a sharply
recurved hook. Mesosome stout, sharply constricted before the apex,
narrowly open along the ventral face, closed on the dorsum and at
the base. Lobes of the ninth tergite short, narrow, approximate, and
each bears a group of stout spines.
Larva. Head rounded, slightly wider than long. Antenna broadly
curved, spined all over; a well developed tuft before the middle.
Upper and lower pairs of dorsal head hairs multiple; ante-antenna1
153