2O ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [ T^H., 'ig 



however, he indicated that the species was very probably D. 

 sobrina. I have examined a great number of specimens from 

 the western states and must state that I cannot distinguish the 

 material from typical eastern sobrina and so must consider this 

 species as being trans-continental, the widest distribution for 

 any species of the genus. Specimens from New Mexico break 

 this rather discontinuous range of sobrina and the species may 

 be looked for in Texas and other intermediate states. D. 

 nigripes is still known only from the unique type taken in 

 Georgia. Specimens that were distributed by me under this 

 name are herein described as a new species, D. minima. D. 

 unnnemana, described from Plummer's Island, Maryland, 

 ranges from Maryland and Georgia westward to Kansas. The 

 new species described below have as yet been found only in 

 scattered localities in Douglas County, Kansas, but unquestion- 

 ably have a wide range in this section. 



The larvae of the species that T have reared, D. u'innemana 

 and D. minima, are very similar to one another and are very 

 characteristic in appearance. They are unusually elongate, 

 slender, the body terete ; the skin very thin, glassy, entirely 

 transparent, and glabrous so that the head-capsule and contents 

 of the alimentary tract show through as clearly as through a 

 very thin glass. The head-capsule is of the massive Limnobiine 

 type and is readily told from all other crane-flies with the 

 exception of Epiphragma by the three-toothed mentum. The 

 spiracular-disk is comparatively small, surrounded by four 

 small, slender, pointed lobes, two being lateral and two ventral 

 in position. The inner face of these lobes and the disk itself 

 are variously marked with black lines. The anal swelling is 

 fleshy and highly protuberant. The larvae live in the moist or 

 rather dry earth where they occur beneath the surface layer of 

 leaf-mold and other debris. The pupa is likewise very char- 

 acteristic since it apparently lacks pronotal breathing horns, 

 these being sessile as in the higher Diptera. The pupa lives 

 encased in a small, oval case of earth. The above observations 

 were made on material reared by my wife, Mabel M. Alex- 

 ander. Detailed observations on the immature stages of this 

 interesting genus are given in another paper. 



A Key to the American species of Dicranoptycha. 



1. Wings with a strong reddish-brown or fulvous tinge; Rs notably 



longer than cell 1st A/2; Canadian life-zone. (Northeastern 



United States) gcrmana O. S. 



Wings not strongly fulvous ; Rs approximately as long as cell 

 1st M2 ; Austral and Transitional life-zones 2 



2. Tips of the femora conspicuously black; abdominal tergites uni- 



formly light brown or yellow 3 



