if*i5-] . 243 



siders to be adaptations to their manner of life. The categories are as follows : 

 (1) Saprophagous Larvae, those which feed on decaying vegetable matter, or 

 the excrement of herbivorous animals : these have a buccal armature similar to 

 that of Calliphora or Lucilia ; the ventral siirface of the basilar piece is feebly 

 chitinised and has a number of longitudinal ridges i^rojecting into the lumen 

 of the phaiynx. (2) Phytophagous larvae, which feed on living plants, as leaf- 

 miners, root-miners, etc. : these have the bucco-pharyngeal armature more 

 concentrated, the basilar piece more chitinised, with ridges feebly developed or 

 absent, the mandibles modified as several-toothed scrapers. (.3) Parasitic 

 larvae : rare among Anthomyiids, there being only certain species of Mydaea 

 parasitic on birds ; their buccal armature resembles that of parasitic Tachinidae. 

 (4) Carnivorotis larvae. It is now known, from the researches of Portchinsky 

 and, later, of Keilin hiiuself, that a good number of larvae found in excrement 

 are not really coprophagous, but live on other larvae or other small animals 

 found with them in the excrement. These carnivorous larvae attack their 

 prey, perforating its skin and sucking its contents. A number of examples are 

 mentioned : for instance, the larvae of Graphomyia maculata, foimd in liquefied 

 decomposing vegetable matter, feed on larvae of Eristalis and pupae of Tipu- 

 lidae ; those of Calliophrys riparia, found among moss, feed on small Oligochaet 

 worms and larvae and pupae of Psychodidae. These carnivorous larvae have 

 certain characters in common. Thus the mandibles are sharp, piercing hooks, 

 and the basilar piece of the armature is very long, narrow, and strongly 

 chitinised, and entirely without the internal longitudinal ridges. 



BuscK, A., and B(^ving, A., " On Mnemonica aurictanea Walsingham." 

 Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, Vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 151-163, pis. 9-16, 1914. 



This little Eriocraniid moth appears to be the first American member of 

 the Micropterygoidea whose biology has been at all completely followed. Its 

 entire life above ground covers biit a few weeks, all the rest of the life-cycle, 

 more than eleven months, being spent beneath the soil in a cocoon. The imago 

 emerges in April and lays its eggs singly in the opening leaves of chestnut, 

 oak, etc. The larva makes a large blotchy mine in the leaf. In about a week 

 or ten days it is full fed, and falls to the ground, where it burrows sometimes 

 as much as a foot deep into the soil. It spins a very tough, close-fitting cocoon, 

 in which it remains as a resting-larva all summer and autumn, and does not 

 ti'ansform to a pupa till winter. Unlike Lepidopterous piipae in general, the 

 pupa has all its appendages quite free and all its body-segments moveable. 

 Contrary to what has previously been asserted, the large mandibles ai-e 

 movable, worked by strong muscles identical with tlic; abductor and adductor 

 muscles of insects with biting mouth-parts. The mandibles ai-e capable of a 

 strong outward swinging movement, by which means the cocoon is split open 

 at the time of emergence. It is principally by movements of head, mandibles, 

 and abdomen that the jjupa then pushes its way to the surface, the legs not 

 being used for this purpose as has bt^(?n asserted. On reaching the surface the 

 pupa remains imm(iva])le for some time ; the last acts of transformation take 

 place ; the piipal mandibles become immovable owing to withdrawal of the 

 imaginal skin, muscles, etc. ; and finally thi' imago emerges. 



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