Aëdes aegypti (L.), the yellow fever mosquito

The composite genus Aedes is divided into 2 genera, Aedes and Ochlerotatus, on the basis of consistent primary characters of the female and male genitalia. Ochlerotatus is separated into 2 sections. Additional supplemental features of the female and male genitalia, 4th-stage larvae, and pupae are provided for the separation of the genera and sections as well as a discussion of exceptions and comparisons. This classification is based on a morphological examination of specimens of over 65% of the currently recognized species and all subgenera previously included in Aedes and representative material of all subgenera and genera of tribe Aedini. Published literature was examined and evaluated. All currently recognized subgenera are assigned to the appropriate genus. The proposed new generic classification provides better defined genera and a more natural arrangement of included taxa. Armigerini is formally recognized as a synonym, in part, of Aedini.

New classification for the composite genus Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae: Aedini), elevation of subgenus Ochlerotatus to generic rank, reclassification of the other subgenera, and notes on certain subgenera and species.

During the course of a light-trap mosquito survey in Panama, we had the opportunity of examining over nine thousand specimens of Uranolaenia and became impressed with the difficulties involved in the identification of the different species due to the inadequacy of the available treatises on the American species of the genus.

A Revision of the Uranotaenia of Panama with Notes on Other American Species of the Genus (Diptera, Culicidae)

: Anopheles (Cellia) nemophilous, a new species of the Leucosphyrus Group from Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand, is described and illustrated in the adult, pupal and larval stages. The species is contrasted with Anopheles dirus and introlatus, two morphologically similar species. The zoogeography and biology of the species is discussed. The Dirus Complex is characterized in the adult stage.

Anopheles (Cellia) nemophilous, a new species of the Leucosphyrus Group from Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand (Diptera: Culicidae).

A list is given of all the species of mosquitos so far recorded from the Seychelles, with their distribution in so far as this is known. A number of new records are included based on collections made recently by one of us (E.S.B.).One species and one subspecies new to science are here described for the first time. The first full descriptions of the male terminalia and pupae of certain other species are included.Some notes are given regarding the taxonomy, bionomics and local distribution of the species concerned and the zoogeography of the groups to which they belong.Appendices are devoted to corrections to the second edition of “The Mosquitoes of the Ethiopian Eegion”, Vol. I by G. H. E. Hopkins, and to the mosquitos of other islands in the western Indian Ocean.

The Mosquitos (Diptera: Culicidae) of the Seychelles

The recent recognition of species complexes within populations formerly believed to represent a single species has focused the attention of students of mosquitoes to a reexamination of characters previously used in the separation of species and to a search for new morphological features useful in diagnosis. The immature stages of mosquitoes offer a greater variety of morphological characters which can be studied quantitatively, analyzed, and used for recognition of species than do the adults. Until recently almost all the attention was paid to the head, a few thoracic and abdominal hairs and the terminal abdominal segments of the larva, and the trumpets, paddles and a few abPom,nal hairs of the pupa. The larval characters used have not been entirely satisfactory and in the last few years the pupal stage has attracted more attention in the search for additional diagnostic characters. This interest in the pupa has culminated in the work of Knight and 'Chamberlain (1948) who made a comparative study, devised a new nomenclature, and illustrated the complete chaetotaxy of representatives of practically all the genera. The study of the larva has not progressed as rapidly, perhaps because of the greater complexity of the chaetotaxy, since the larva has upward of 200 pairs of hairs while the pupa appears to have about 105 pairs. The complete larval chaetotaxy for the majority of the genera is still unknown. In the course of a study on the genus Uranotaenia from the Solomon Islands, the complete larval chaetotaxy of seven species was described and figured by the author. In the preparation of descriptions it became evident that the existing nomenclatures were not entirely satisfactory as various combinations of numerical, alphabetical and nominal terminologies have been used by different workers according to their individual preferences and no system used all the elements of the larval chaetotaxy known at the present time. It seemed advisable, therefore, to prepare a uniform nomenclature which would (1) take into account all the established elements of the chaetotaxy of the fourth instar mosquito larva, (2) allow for the later inclusion of certain elements now poorly known, (3) show homologies where they have been established, (4) be equally suitable for anophelines and culicines, and (5) be easy to use in descriptions.

John N. Belkin

Papers

A Revised Nomenclature for the Chaetotaxy of the Mosquito Larva (Diptera: Culicidae)