168 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 47, NO. 6, JUNE, 1945 A LIST OF THE MOSQUITOES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.' By Newell E. Good, U. S. Public Health Service.-The earliest reference to a species of mosquito in the District of Columbia appears to be that of Warden (1816, p. 167) who wrote: "Two insects abound in this place, (the estate of Harrison Smith) and torment the lovers of nature; the wood-louse and mosquito {Culex pipiens, L.) . . . The bite of the mosquito also creates inflam-mation, and it annoys the ear of the pensive or studious by its unpleas-ant buzz." Since at that time only three of the species now know to occur here had been described, {Culex pipiens L., Aedes aegypti (L.), and Psorophora ciliata (Fabr.)), Warden's '''Culex pipiens L." may have consisted of a complex of a number of species. In 1868 Baron Osten Sacken described Aedes sapphiriniis, now Uranotaenia, with Washington, D. C. as a type locality, thus giving the District of Columbia its first definite specific mosquito record. The District of Columbia is likewise the type locality for Orthopodomyia signifera (Coquillett) 1896, the type of which is preserved in the U. S. National Museum. Lists of mosquitoes including records of specimens collected in the District of Columbia were published by Howard in 1896, 1900, and 1901, by Howard, Dyar, and Knab 1915-1917, and Dyar 1922. These papers listed 9, 13, 10, 26 and 23 species respectively from the District of Columbia. Because of the inevitable changes in synonymy it is difficult to determine in each case from the published data just which of our present day species were represented in the collections of these writers. Fortunately, most of these, as well as many unreported speci-mens, are preserved in the collection of the U. S. National Museum. This collection contains specimens of 31 species of mosquitoes from the District of Columbia which were collected ' The writer wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. Alan Stone, U. S. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, for making final identifications of all of the specimens specifically listed in this paper and for his ever available aid in all phases of the work, and to Dr. E. A. Chapin and Mr. C. F. W. Muese-beck for giving permission to publish records of the specimens in the collection of the U. S. National Museum and for making available a microscope and working space during the winters of 1942-43 and 1943-44. The majority of the original identifications of the 1942 and 1943 collections were made by Asst. Sanitarian (R) John E. Porter who was assigned to the District of Columbia office from September 1942 to August 1943. The 1942-45 collections were made by MCWA entomologists and inspectors, particularly Engineering Aide, C. W. Travis. 2 Passed Assistant Sanitarian (R), Malaria Control in War Areas.
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