Dec, 19I3-] Townsend: Notes on Exoristid.e. 305 



Practically all of the work reviewed above is constructive, and as 

 such it is to be commended and emulated. The descriptions show 

 careful preparation and that attention to details which is so essential 

 to taxonomic treatment of these flies. Contrasted with this work is 

 that performed by the late Mr. Coquillett, which was destructive to 

 the extent that it attempted to sink into the synonymy valid generic 

 and specific names. The synonymy indicated in his " Revision " and 

 "Type Species" very largely remains to be verified, while it is safe 

 to say that a very considerable part of it is absolutely unjustifiable. 

 Furthermore, whenever it was possible so to manipulate type designa- 

 tions as to sink genera, he has not neglected the opportunity. Such 

 work is a pulling down which leaves us worse ofif than before. 



What is needed in the Muscoidea, and especially in the Exoristidae 

 and more nearly allied families, is an intensive study of the numerous 

 forms thoroughly and conscientiously carried through, without bias 

 and with that keen judgment of character values and natural appre- 

 ciation of phylogenetic relations which stamp the master zoologist. 

 Each one of us must strive as best he can to attain this result. 



NOTES ON THE FEEDING AND REARING OF THE 

 MIDGE, CHIRONOMUS CAYUGA JOHANNSEN. 



By Mary Ruth Tilbury, 



Ithaca, N. Y. 



During a brief opportunity for study in the Limnological Research 

 Laboratory at Cornell University, at the suggestion of Professor 

 James G. Needham, I undertook the problem of feeding bloodworms 

 on a known food. Pure cultures were obtained and placed in steril- 

 ized media and kept under constant control. The larvae, hatched 

 from eggs, grew rapidly, pupated, and emerged in adult form in a 

 little over a month's time. The details of the experiments are noted 

 in the following paragraphs. 



On April 28 a mass of eggs was collected with algae in a pond at 

 the field station near Cayuga Lake, Ithaca, New York. It was a 

 rounded, pear-shaped mass of gelatine 2.5 by 6 millimeters in size, 



