380 



DIPTERA. 



Several species have been found in Europe under the bark 

 of apple trees, etc. Loew states "that the species on which 

 Wagner made his observations is nearly allied 

 to the genus Heteropeza, but still more closely 

 to the genus Monodicrana, from the amber of 

 the Tertiary formation on the shores of the 

 Baltic. (Zoological Record, 18G5.) JMeiuert de- 

 scribes a similar species of worm and its imago, 

 under the name of Miastor metroloas, and charac- 

 terizes the fly as having very short two-jointed 

 palpi, and moniliform eleven-jointed antennae. 

 The wings have three veins, the middle one of 

 which does not reach the apex of the wing. 



PSYCHODID^E Zetterstedt. The principal genus 

 in this small family is Psyclioda, comprising 

 small flies with broad, veiy short, oval whitish 

 Fig. 207. wings, which, like the bod} T , are very hahy. 

 They may be seen flying and leaping on the banks of, or on the 

 surface of pools, and on windows. The larvae live in dung. 

 The larva of the European P. phalcenmdes (so named from its 

 resemblance to a moth) is "long, subfnsiform and depressed, 

 with a slender, straight cylindrical tail, longer than the pre- 

 ceding segment. The pupa has two short appendages, thick- 

 ened at the tips behind the head. The abdomen is tapering." 

 (TVestwood.) 



Latreille. The Daddy-long-legs or Crane-flies 

 are well known by their large size and long legs, and from their 

 close resemblance in form have probably given rise to the 

 humorous stories of giant mosquitoes, which sometimes appear 

 in newspapers. They are characterized by their slender an- 

 tennae and palpi, and their remarkably long legs, while the 

 abdomen is very slender and cylindrical in shape ; the group 

 chiefly differs, however, from other flies, according to Baron 

 Osten Sacken (Monograph of the Diptcra of North America, 

 Part iv), in the presence of a transverse Y-shaped suture 

 across the inesonotum ; by the completeness of the venation, 

 and the presence of a well developed ovipositor, " with its two 



