334 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



nas, Engrena, and Charcium. Besides these I found several 

 kinds of bacteria in a smear made from the alimentary tract 

 of a SimuUiim larva. 



"According to the unpublished observations of Miss R. Phil- 

 lips (of the class of 1890, Cornell University) the larva feeds 

 on algEE, as Notltix, Chaldophora, Vaucheria, on diatoms, and 

 parts of phanerogamous plants. Sand also has been found in 

 the digestive canal." (N. Y. St. Mus. Bui. 68.) "A searching 

 investigation of the water in their breeding places revealed 

 the fact that it was swarming with animal life and was filled 

 wih the larval forms of small crustaceans belonging to various 

 fam.ilies, but chiefly to those of copepods and isopods. Larvse 

 of the southern buffalo gnat (peeuanvm) kept in glasses were 

 observed to swallow these minute crustaceans, and none of 

 this food was seen to be expelled again. A number of square 

 diatoms, jointed together in a chain, have also been observed 

 by the aid of the microscope." (U. S. Dept. Agri. Yr. Bk., 

 1886, quoted in Bui. 5, n. s.) The above would indicate that 

 Simulivm larvfB are both herbivorous and carnivorous. 



A very interesting part of Simulmm larvas's and pupae's 

 habits was learned when we discovered their ability to keep 

 alive in a wet pack of cloth or snow for several hours. Our 

 first experiment with that was on February 15, 1912, when I 

 packed some Simvlhim larvae, on the rocks, in wet snow 

 wrapped in cheese cloth. The time of packing was 5 P. M., the 

 place Rosedale, Kan. From there I transported the mass in 

 an old suitcase to Lawrence and placed them in a ripple in the 

 laboratory at 8 p. M. The snow pack was frozen when I un- 

 packed the larvae, but they were active and continued to live 

 afterward in the laboratory. 



The next time we tried that experiment was June 7, 1912, 

 when I packed the larvae and pupae on rocks in wet cheese 

 cloth at Rosedale at -5 P. M., brought them to Lawrence and 

 placed them in the laboratory ripple alive at 11 P. M. Some 

 of the larvae left in the wet cloth were still alive at 10 A. M. the 

 next day, June 8. This made a total of seventeen hours that 

 the larv;e kept alive in the wet pack. The pupae continued to 

 live, so that imagoes emerged June 14. The larvae soon trans- 

 formed to pupae, and twenty-four flies emerged June 19. 



Again on August 3, 1912, I brought to Lawrence from 

 Rosedale several pupae torn from the rocks and several larvae 

 off the rocks in a wet pack in a tin box. Those larvae lived 



