6 The hish Naturalist. L January, 



tubes and rising to the surface, with many violent contortions 

 emerged as full-blown flies. 



Being anxious to try and study the earlier stages of these 

 larvae I returned to my water-barrel, and before long found 

 floating on the surface a small mass of jelly, the lower portion 

 of which was filled with eggs, laid in a long spirally-coiled 

 gelatinous tube. The top portion, which consisted of long 

 threads of jelly, seemed to be used to keep the lower part 

 afloat, and, probably, in other cases, to anchor it to floating 

 leaves, etc. These eggs I watched hatching. The grubs 

 were at first minute and colourless. They gradually increased 

 in size and colour, till they were, roughly speaking, about one 

 inch in length and of the beautiful blood-red colour already 

 described. The pupa is provided with tw^o tufts of breathing 

 filaments, set one on each side of the thorax, and also with 

 another tuft on the tail, all pure white. These distinguish 

 the creature very clearly from the common gnat pupa, there 

 being no sign of the air-tubes or horns which one sees on the 

 latter, the fact that the Chironoimis pupa never leaves its 

 burrow till ready for its final change necessitating the adapta- 

 tion described. 



The imago of a ChiroJiovms midge is, to the unscientific 

 eye, very like a common gnat, but its earlier stages are so very 

 distinct from those of the gnat, and the flies are in reality so 

 dissimilar that they are classed by entomologists in separate 

 families. 



The resemblance between these larvae and the worms de- 

 scribed by Mr. Friend can, of course, only be a very super- 

 ficial one, but still the colour, the fact that they both build 

 tubes, are very gregarious, and are both found in the same 

 sort of places, all help to make it easy for the casual observer 

 to confound them. 



Fenagh House, Bagcnalstown. 



