The Crane-Flies of New York — Part I 777 



seems very abundant, both in number of species and in number of 

 individuals, and the larvae are exceedingly numerous. 



The Biological Survey has kept a very careful record of the food of 

 birds and other vertebrates, based on the examination of stomach con- 

 tents, and thru the kindness of Messrs. W. L. McAtee and E. R. 

 Kalmbach the writer has obtained a record of the species known to feed 

 on crane-flies. Over a hundred species of birds, representing almost all 

 the bird families, have been found to feed on the adult flies. The more 

 notable and general of these birds are sandpipers, flycatchers, vireos, 

 swallows, wood warblers, and thrushes. The species feeding on the larvae 

 consist for the most part of ducks, shore birds, and thrushes. Dr. Alice 

 A. Noyes has found in the stomach of a Wilson's snipe twenty-three 

 head capsules of a small Tipula (possibly T. dejecta Walker), showing 

 the importance of the larvae as food at certain seasons. Similarly the 

 food of toads (Bufo) and of frogs (Rana) often includes an abundance 

 of larval and adult crane-flies (Needham, 1905). 



The larvae of crane-flies are very tempting to many species of fishes. 

 Certain of the larger larvae, such as those of Tipula abdominalis and 

 Eriocera spinosa, furnish one of the best of baits for black bass and other 

 game fish, being even more tempting in many cases than the better-known 

 dobson (Corydalis). The skin of these larvae is very tough and leathery, 

 hence their common name leather-jacket. The fishhook is run thru the 

 body of the larva at about midlength, leaving the two ends wriggUng. 

 Studies made by Needham (1908:172-188) on the food of the bullhead, 

 the sunfish, and the red-belhed minnow, showed that crane-fhes were 

 not eaten by these species, and the same is true of the brook trout in 

 ponds (Needham, 1903 a). But the habitat of the larvae is not in the 

 haunts of these fishes. They Kve in the leaf drift caught in the eddies, 

 in the mud and gravel at the sides and the bottom of the stream, and 

 in similar situations which are not readily accessible to the fish. It seems 

 probable that it is due to the fact that the larvae furnish such choice 

 titbits, that they cannot exist in the same haunts with the fish. Some 

 species, as those of Eriocera, live in the chutes of the Mississippi River, 

 and they are the only crane-flies known from such a habitat. The remains 

 of crane-flies, such as wings, legs, and heads, are often found in fish 

 stomachs, these being from adult flies that have fallen into the water 

 and been snapped up by the fish. 



