46 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



In 1886 J. Mik 1 records observations on certain Tipulidae mat- 

 ing when the female is freshly .emerged. He states that the males 

 sit and wait for the emergence of the females and when they 

 appear mating commences immediately, even before the legs are 

 entirely clear of the pupal shell and while the abdomen is still 

 limp and watery. Observations of this character were made on 

 species of three genera, Cylindrotoma, Dicranomyia and Trochobola. 

 Mik records these observations to refute the idea advanced by 

 another writer that the deposition of fertile eggs by a soft bodied 

 freshly transformed female Coccinellid beetle was a case of par- 

 thenogenesis. Mik argues that, while the insect is not fully 

 developed externally, it is sexually perfect internally. 



Needham, 2 describes and figures the pupa of Tipula flavescens 

 and states that he bred them in late September from clay subsoil 

 brought up by crayfish in a glacial "pothole" in the state of 

 Illinois. 



Many hundreds of the specimens observed by me at Rosslyn, 

 Virginia, were killed by some fungus disease. Dead flies were 

 found in some abundance sitting head upwards on twigs and weed 

 stems, sometimes singly but generally two or more together, often 

 as many as five or six being found in a mass. The abdomens of 

 the dead flies were found to be filled with a pulpy mass similar 

 to that filling the bodies of fungus-killed lepidopterous larvae. 

 Flies freshly dead look as if perfectly well and active, unless it 

 be that the legs are wrapped more securely around the twig or 

 stem to which it clings. Specimens of these fungus-infested Tipu- 

 lids were turned over to Prof. Webster for study and determination 

 of the fungus. Other specimens are preserved in the National 

 Museum collection. 



LUMINOUS COLLEMBOLA 



BY HERBERT S. BARBER, Bureau of Entomology. 



Very few of us walk at night in woodland paths without a lan- 

 tern and this fact is perhaps the explanation of the extremely 

 meager data available on the subject of luminous Collembola. 

 The almost universal ignorance here in America, that such photo- 

 genic function occurs in this order is, it is hoped, sufficient apology 

 for the presentation of the following very imperfect observations, 

 and re'sume' of previous notes which have been brought to my 

 attention. It is hoped that these notes will yield an abundant 

 crop of corroborative and advanced data by the end of another 



1 Ent. Nachr., vol. xn, p. 315. 



2 Bull. New York State Museum, No. 68, p. 280, 1903. 



