SCIENTIFIC SURVEY. 



177 



\ 



water, are necessary for the maintenance of aquatic larvae. If 

 quantities of swamp mud and moss with decaying matter is kept 

 in boxes and jars, multitudes of small flies will be hatched out. 

 Leaf mining species can be treated as micro-lepidoptera, and earth 

 inhabiting larvae, like ordinary caterpillars. Dung, mould in hol- 

 low trees, stems of plants and toad stools contain numerous larvae 

 or maggots, as the young of flies are called, which must be kept in 

 damp boxes. 



Flies can be pinned alive, without killing them by pressure, 

 which destroys their form ; and numbers may be killed at once by 

 moistening the bottom of the collecting box with creosote, benzine 

 or ether. Minute species can be pinned with minute No. 19 or 20 

 pins, or pieces of fine silver wire, and stuck into pieces of pith, 

 which can be placed high up on a large pin. In this way the 

 specimen can be handled without danger of breakiog. Small 

 moths can be treated in this way. In pinning long legged, slender 

 species, run a piece of card or paper up under their bodies upon 

 which their legs may expand, and thus prevent their loss by 

 breakage. 



Of these insects, as with all others, duplicates in all the stages 

 of growth, should be preserved in alcohol, as the minute species 

 often dry up unless put in homeopathic vials. 



Culicidce. Mosquitoes, Gnats, have the mouth parts produced 

 into a proboscis half as long as the insects themselves, which they 

 can push into the skin. The females lay their eggs in a boat- 

 shaped mass, which floats on the surface of the water, and in the 

 spring the larvae are seen in pools by thousands, jerking them- 

 selves up and down in the water, after protruding a star-like respi- 

 ratory organ above the surface to obtain a supply of fresh air. 

 The pupae are club-shaped, with very large heads, to which two 

 respiratory feeler-like organs are attached. There are several 

 generations in a season. A large four-spotted species, {Anopheles 

 quadrimaculatus) is abundant very early in spring and late in the 

 fall. There are several genera and species of this family. 



Tipulidce. (Daddy-long-legs. Crane-flies.) The long palpi and 



antennae, slender body and very long legs of the members of this 



family, make them well known. The smaller species belong to 



the genus Chironomus, which is musquito-like, with feathered 



antennae, and abounds in swarms in early spring. Their larvae are 



worm-like, of a blood-red color, and are found in the bottom of 



ponds. 



23 



