706 Charles Paul Alexander 



with his forceps. Thou he attempted to fly away, but she seized hold 

 of the board with all her feet and he was unable to disengage her. This 

 seems to indicate that the normal place for copulation is in the air. 



The motions of the insects in the swarm were very rapid, almost Hke 

 those of bees, and the sound produced was at a very low pitch, much 

 lower than that made by Culex. The movements are on a horizontal 

 plane, each individual flying mostly in the path of a figure 8, sometimes 

 slowly and at other times much more rapidly. 



Many specimens were seen dipping down into the water, as tho engaged 

 in laying eggs. All of the few specimens captured proved to be males, 

 but why this sex should go thru these motions is not clear to the writer. 

 This action has been observed several times in various species of crane- 

 flies. It is very probable that the female lays her eggs in the water in 

 this manner. 



The eggs are pale white or brown, not heavily chitinized as are those 

 of Hexatoma but with the chorion feebly sculptured. They vary in 

 number from 892 to 1034, with an average of 952. They are small, about 

 the same size as those of Hexatoma. The ovaries almost completely 

 fill the abdominal cavity, and the eggs are arranged in the ovaries like 

 bananas on a stalk, with numerous pale nurse-cells in between. 



The larval life is passed in streams, usually under rocks. The winter 

 is spent in the larval condition, but the larvae do not attain full size until 

 the following spring. At tliis time they come to the land and live in 

 the sand and gravel along the banks of the streams. By the alternate 

 extension and contraction of the body and the inflation of the penultimate 

 segment of the abdomen at the moment of extension, the larvae are 

 capable of inflating tliis segment into an enormous globular structure 

 which serves as an aid to progression thru the soil. The food of the larvae 

 consists largely of animal matter, and often large species, such as chiro- 

 nomid larvae, are swallowed whole. The almost total lack of chitinization 

 of the mental region allows for great distension of this part of the body. 

 The powerful mandibles and the retrorsely roughened esophagus serve 

 the fimction of both holding the prey and preventing its ejection when 

 once swallowed. Consideral)le gravel and particles of vegetable tissue 

 are also found in the proven tricular region. 



When ready to transform to the pupal condition, the larva becomes 

 sluggish. After molting the last larval skin, the pupa is disclosed, pale 



