262 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN MOSQUITOES (DIPTERA, CULICIDAE). 1. The Life History of Aedomyia venustipes (Skuse). By G. W. Douglas, Vermin and Noxious Weeds Destruction Board, Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Melbourne, Victoria. (One Text-figure.) [Read 29th November, 1961.] Synopsis. The male, larva and pupa of Aedomyia venustipes (Skuse) are described and the female re-described, from specimens collected at Woodside, near Yarram, Victoria. The larvae and pupae are found chiefly in open, permanent, well-vegetated pools during spring and summer. The larvae are pale green and remain submerged amongst vegetation, and they can spend long periods on the bottom of collecting jars free of vegetation without rising to the surface. The larvae do not appear to have special structures for obtaining oxygen from plants. The pupae are brown in colour and frequently rest amongst surface vegetation and move rapidly through the water like a tadpole with their tails out behind them. Adults have not been collected in the field although numerous attempts have been made to attract them to man and rabbit. Laboratory bred adults feed readily on sugar solution and raisins after emergence. The eggs are unknown. This species is recorded from the Gippsland and Mallee regions of Victoria, and from the Elizabeth Bay and National Park districts of New South Wales. Adults of A. venustipes can be distinguished from Aedomyia catasticta Knab by the scales forming the prominent scutal pattern being short and broad in venustiiies and long and narrow in catasticta; the third hind tarsal segment all white and fifth all dark in venustivp-s, w^hilst the third white at base and apex, dark in between, and the fifth mostly white in catasticta. Aedomyia venustipes (Skuse). Aedes venustipes Skuse 1889, Prog. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., (2) 3: 1761. Aedes (Aedomyial) venustipes Skuse, Theobald, 1901, Mon. Cul., II: 223; Aedomyia catasticta, Knab, 1909, Ent. News, 20: 387; Aedomyia squamipennis Leicester (nee. L-A), 1908, Cul. Malaya, p. 182; Aedomyia venustipes Edwards, 1924, Bull. Ent. Res., 14: 364. As can be seen from some of the early publications, Taylor (1914), Edwards (1924, 1929), Mackerras (1937) and Baisas (1938), there has been confusion over the dis-tribution (and specific determination) of A. venustipes and A. catasticta. It appears, however, that A. venustipes is the species found chiefly in southern Australia. Types: Holotype female, collected by Skuse at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, in 1886, is in the Macleay Museum, Sydney. The allotype male, 3 males and 3 females of this series, 3 morphotype larvae and 3 morphotype pupae from Woodside, are in the collection of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. One male and one female are in each of the following collections: C.S.I.R.O. Division of Entomology, Canberra; School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney; Macleay Museum, Sydney; University of Queensland, Brisbane; Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane; British Museum (Natural History), London, and U.S. National Museum. Washington. The holotype and another female in the National Museum, Melbourne, which bears two labels, 1 — "18.11.25 Melbourne, Victoria. G. F. Hill" and 2^''Aedomyia venustipes (Skuse) Id. by G. F. Hill, Nov. '25", were the only adults known prior to the series described in this paper. The holotype female was examined in November, 1956, and was found to be faded and with many scales and some legs missing. In addition, it was mounted on cardboard and only one side was examined. The Woodside specimens agree with it in the following details: third hind tarsal segment pure white, fifth segment dark; scutal scale patterns and scale types similar; wing scaling apparently similar; and proboscis with bands of white scales medially and at the apex. Procee!dings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1961, Vol. Ixxxvi, Part 3.
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