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

190 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA
joints. Mid tarsi with the first joint largely white scaled, the apical
third black, the second and third with basal white rings, the last two
black; front tarsi similarly marked.
Male hypopygiunz. (Fig. 3, Pl. XVIII ; Figs. 4 and 5, Pl. XXV.)
Side-pieces twice as long as wide, slightly tapering, rounded apically ;
apical and basal lobes absent. Clasper stout, arcuate, convex me-
dianly, sharply angulated at outer fifth and ending in a very short,
stout articulated spine. The convexity is armed with short, stout,
setae. Claspette stout, curved, slightly enlarged apically, bearing a
row of setae on the basal half; a single recurved, lamellate appen-
dage arising before the tip and a dense tuft of hairs crowning the
apical part of the claspette. The mesosome appears as a narrow
heavily chitinized cone-like structure, broadly open on the venter,
closed on the dorsal side and open at the base; the apical portion is
supported by two narrow longitudinal chitinous strips with serrate
outer margins; just before the apex there is a broad angulate chitin-
ous expansion on either side, giving the apical portion an arrow-head
appearance. The lobes of the ninth tergite are widely separated,
very slightly chitinized and each bears a group of setae.
Larva. (Fig. 2, Pl. XXII.) Length 12 mm. Head quadrate,
longer than wide; antenna cylindrical, sparsely spined all over, a
single hair on the outer fourth; anteantennal tuft of a single hair
the shaft divided into three to five fine hairs; upper and lower head
hairs single, approximate, the upper one very short. Abdominal lat-
eral hairs double on the first to the fifth segments, single on the
sixth. Lateral comb of the eighth segment consists of a single row
of scales preceded by an area of minute flat scales. Anal segment
longer than wide, ringed by the dorsal plate; dorsal brush a long
hair and a multiple tuft on each side; ventral brush a series of short
multiple tufts extending nearly the whole length of the anal segment.
Anal gils over three times the length of the anal segment, gradually
tapering to a sharp point. Air-tube four times as long as wide,
slightly tapering beyond the middle; pecten reaching to the middle of
the tube; tuft a single hair arising beyond the pecten.
This species is widely distributed in the eastern United
States, east of the plains, from Mexico toI the Canadian bor-
der. It also occurs in parts of South America. It is not com-
mon in Central New York. The larvae live in temporary
ground puddles and are predacious feeding on the larvae of
other mosquitoes which breed in similar places. The larval