THE DIPTERA. 45 



beside their old pupa-skins, drowned individuals which have 

 failed to effect a successful emergence. The perfect insect 

 is extremely common in all swampy situations throughout 

 the summer ; it has a great partiality for light, and may 

 be occasionally noticed in vast numbers round the street 

 lamps on a hot summer's night, especially if rain is 

 impending. It is a most graceful insect, and will amply 

 repay a minute examination (Fig. 2). 



Family TlPULlDJE. 



Ceratopogon antipodum, n.s. (Plate IV., fig. 4, 4a larva, 

 4b pupa). 



Very plentiful in the forest throughout the year, often 

 enlivening the winter sunshine by its merry gambols. The 

 larva (Fig. 4a), is found under the bark of newly fallen trees, 

 feeding on the sap which exudes in large quantities from 

 the logs whilst drying. When first discovered it often has 

 a curiously spangled appearance, owing to the minute 

 beads of moisture retained by numerous bristles clothing 

 the larva. When about to change, these insects assemble 

 in large companies of thirty or forty, firmly affixing their 

 basal segments to the wood, their heads all pointing 

 inwards and forming a small circle. In some cases, where 

 an unusually large gathering has occurred, a number 

 arrange themselves into an outer row, their heads being 

 immediately behind the extremities of the inner group, 

 the whole thus bearing a rough likeness to the radiations 

 of a star-fish. The pupa is very short, and is furnished 

 with two clubbed horns on the thorax for respiration. Its 

 abdominal portions are retained within the old larval skin, 

 thus keeping it firmly anchored to the log. The perfect 

 insect emerges from a rent in the thorax of the pupa, 

 groups of exuviae being of common occurrence under the 

 bark. The sexes differ considerably, the individual figured 



