202 AN ACCOUNT OF BRITISH FLIES. 



brown ; in the ? the antennas are brown, with yellow base and 

 yellow bands; first eight joints oval, next six elliptical and long. 

 Wings slightly yellowish towards costa in the ? . Legs tawny, dark 

 at the tips of the femora, tibiae, and tarsi ; anterior femora armed 

 with seventeen spines, middle with four, posterior with three ; a thick 

 bristle on side of hind plantse. Length, i to 2 lin. Common and 

 generally distributed ; often in large clouds over stagnant water. 



C. niorio, F. 



/-. /• , T? ] C. liter. Mg. 



C femora f us, F. = -; ' & 



C. rufitarsis, Mg. 

 \C. ar>iiafiis, Mg. 



Shining black. Antennce in S ^vith plumes glistening white 

 towards their tips. Wings slightly milky, with brownish tinge ; veins 

 pale brown. Legs tawny ; tarsi pale ; joints, as usual, darker near 

 their apex ; hind femora thickly spinose beneath, slightly spinose 

 above ; long and incrassate ; in the ^ the claws are slender, and 

 of equal length on all the tarsi ; in the ? those of the anterior tarsi 

 are equal ; on the hind tarsi one claw is four times the length of the 

 other. Length, i to li lin. A common species, and met with in 

 most places ; subject to great variation, twelve distinct varieties 

 being described by Winnertz. 



Additional Notes on Chiroiwnuis larvce. 



Some notes have been kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. 

 Swainson, F.L.S., those concerning the supposed annelid Compontia 

 cruciformis (of Johnston), which is now shown to be a Chironomus 

 larva, and which, from the figure sent, is evidently the same as the 



Fig. 43. — Compontia cruciformis. Probably the larva of T. Fraucnfeldi. 



larvae found by me in Guernsey (p. 171), being particularly interest- 

 ing. I append the more important parts of Mr. Swainson's notes : 



"In October last, on our Golf Links at St. Anne's-on-Sea, I found several 

 larva: of Chironomus, fully grown, in its splendid blood-red colour. These I kept 

 during the winter, and watched their metamorphoses in small glass jars with the 

 tops covered with muslin. They ultimately turned out to be C. dorsalis, and 

 their resemblance to Compontia cruciformis in all hut colour is most remarkable. 

 The haemoglobin which colours the ' harlequin ' larva so beautifully is replaced in 



