THE CRANE-FLIES OF NEW YORK 

 PART I. DISTRffiUTION AND TAXONOMY OF THE ADULT FLIES » 

 Charles Paul Alexander 



Tho crane-fly fauna of New York State may be considered as repre- 

 sentative of that of northeastern North America. For more than half 

 a century New York has been one of the favorite collecting grounds for 

 students of this neglected group of insects. The original plan of the present 

 paper was to include only the species that are actually known to occur 

 in this State. However, it should be understood and appreciated that in 

 groups of insects which have been long ignored by almost all students 

 of entomology, such as the group under consideration, it is still impossible 

 to give the exact range of any particular species, and forms that seem 

 to be confined to certain sections of the country upset all calculations 

 by reappearing in distant regions which had been considered as far outside 

 the range of the species. Thus it is possible that almost any species 

 occurring in northeastern America may be found within the limits of this 

 State, altho some species are now known only from localities so distant 

 as to make it seem improbable that they may be found here also. For 

 this reason the scope of the present paper has been extended to include 

 the northeastern United States and eastern Canada — Labrador and 

 Newfoundland, south to Virginia and Kentucky, west to Iowa, Minnesota, 

 and Manitoba. It is believed --that this area includes about all of the 

 local probabilities, but there are undoubtedly new species yet to be dis- 

 covered and lost species to be recognized. 



The number of species of crane-flies that should occur in New York 

 State is probably not less than three hundred, and this figure seems 

 similarly applicable to many areas of equal extent and equal diversity of 

 ecological conditions in the North Temperate Zone. 



The student of this group of flies will find that there is still very much 

 to be done in determining the exact seasonal and geographical distribution 



"This study was conducted in the entomological laboratory of Cornell University, under the direction 

 ■Au: "iT*"^ ^- Needham, Dr. J. Chester Bradley, and Dr. O. A. Johannsen, to whom the writer is 

 indebted for many helpful criticisms and suggestions. 



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