364 DIPTERA. 



lated in great numbers, and remain until the larvae are suffi- 

 ciently developed to be hatched, so that these animals are 

 viviparous. In the pupiparous Hii^pobosca?, the female organs 

 are formed on an entirely special t3'pe, corresponding with the 

 remarkable mode of reproduction in these animals." (Siebold.) 

 Near the external opening of the oviduct is a pair of glands 

 designed to secrete the gummy matter coating the eggs. 



The eggs of the Diptera are usually cylindrical, elon- 

 gated and slightly- curved, and the surface is smooth, not being 

 ornamented as in the Lepidoptera. In the Tipulidce the 

 eggs become mature as soon as the pupa skin is thrown oft', 

 when they are immediately laid. 



Tlie Iarv5i3 are footless, white, fleshy, thin skinned, cylindrical 

 and worm-like, spindled or linear in shape. They have, in the 

 higher families, as in the Tipalidoi, a distinct head ; but they 

 are often headless, as in the 3Iuscidce, and are then called 

 maggots. They live in mould, decaying organic substances, or 

 in the water. Many maggots are provided with two corneous 

 hooks, probabl}^ the mandibles, with which they seize their food. 

 The pupa is either naked (Pupa obtecta. Fig, 27G), like the 

 chrysaiids of moths, witli the limbs exposed, as in the Tijm- 

 lidce ; or they are coarctate (pupa coarctata, Fig. 

 272) as in the flies generally, the skin of the larva 

 serving to protect the soft pupa within, as during 

 the growth of the pupa the old larval skin separates 

 from the newly formed pupa skin, which contracts 

 slightly. It is then called the puparium, and is 

 usually cylindrical and regularly rounded at each end 

 like the cocoon of moths. Those which have the 

 Pig. 272. pupae obtected, when aquatic and active, are provided 

 with gill-like fllaments permeated with tracheie. 



The semipupa stage of Diptera, corresponds generally with 

 that of the Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. By an ingenious 

 device Dr. Fitch succeeded in observing in the living insect 

 the processes by which the larva of the willow Cecidomyia 

 (C. sallcis) turns to a pupa, and Avhich is usually accomplished 

 during the night. He states tliat ''as the first step of this 

 change, at the anterior end of the larva the cutis or opake 

 inner skin becomes wholly broken up and dissolved into a 



