I 



The Crane-Flies of New York — Part II 769 



Family Tanyderidae 



Larva (supposition).' — Body eucephalous, metapneustic. Integument smooth, shiny white. 

 Last two segments of abdomen produced into a stout, non-retractile breathing tube, which 

 is distinctly five-lobed at the tip. Tracheal gills two, very large, pinnately branched. Head 

 with scattered punctures, which are multisetose; lateral plates of head united across venter. 

 Mandibles opposed, narrow, tridentate. Maxilla with palpus two-segmented, the outer 

 lobe digitiform, pubescent. Labrum small, semi-circular, with two punctures; clypeus with 

 four punctures. 



Pupa. — Unknown. 



The Tanyderidae comprise a group of primitive crane-flies including 

 but three recent genera, with ten species. Of these the genus herein 

 considered, Protoplasa, with three known species, is found in the Northern 

 Hemisphere. All that is known concerning the biology of supposed 

 species of this group pertains to Protoplasa fitchii and is discussed below. 



Genus Protoplasa Osten Sacken (Gr. first + to form) 



1859 Protoplasa O. S. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 252. 

 1878 Idioplasta O. S. Cat. Dipt. N. Amer., p. 222. 



The genus Protoplasa is confined to temperate 1^5'orth America. There 

 are three known species, of which P. vipio 0. S. and P. vanduzeei Alex, 

 are v/estern in their distribution, while P. fitchii O. S. is eastern. The 

 general characters of the supposed larva are given above; the detailed 

 account in connection with the species P. fitchii follows. 



Protoplasa fitchii 0. S. 

 1859 Protoplasa fitchii 0. S. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 252. 



The remarkable insect Protoplasa fitchii is one of the rarest of the 

 local crane-flies. There are scarcely a score of specimens extant in the 

 various collections of the country, most of which are from the mountainous 

 section of North Carolina. The fly has not been reared, but the writer has 

 in his possession a larva that he refers with much confidence to this species. 

 It is one of the most remarkal)le dipterous larvae that have ever come to 

 the writer's notice, and, whether or not it belongs to Protoplasa, it should 

 certainly be called to the attention of entomologists in the hope that it 

 may some day be bred and its identity confirmed or ascertained. These 

 peculiar dipterous larvae were discovered by H. S. Barber, C. T. Greene, and 



