J0T7BNAL, OF ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY 107 



maximum. Near Berlin, tlie flies emerj^e during the first half 

 of July. The males appear first, the females later, and these 

 latter were always seized in copulation by the males just after 

 they had forsaken the pupal skin and while still teneral and 

 undeveloi)ed. (In this regard compare also Mik (Entomol. 

 Nachricht, p. 200, pp. .315, 316, 1886) ; and Caudell (Proc. Ent. 

 Soc. Wash., pp. 45-46, 1913). Each female lays about sixty 

 eggs (like Phalacrocera, according to Miall and Shelf ord) and 

 these are deposited singly on the leaves or branches or attached 

 lightly to the axils of the leaves of H. squarrosuin. The female 

 dies soon after the accomplishment of oviposition. The larvae 

 when newly emerged, lack the beautiful moss-green color of 

 the later stages and are ashy-grey. The animal grows very 

 slowly in the autumn, and throughout the winter is still very 

 small and difficult to detect. In the spring the growth is greatly 

 accelerated and the larva becomes fully grown during the latter 

 half of June. While growing, the animal molts several times, 

 proliably at least eight, the number determined for Phalacro- 

 cera by Bengtsson. Pupation occurs in the moss where the 

 larva happens to be. In its green color with brown blotches, 

 the larva simulates remarkably the color of the host-plant and 

 the effect of the shadows east by various foreign bodies such 

 as plant-stems and leaves. As Mueggenburg says: "so com- 

 pletely does our larva harmonize with its environment that 

 even a practiced eye succeeds only after long inspection in 

 discovering it on the moss branches." The extreme sluggish- 

 ness of the larva, so characteristic of the American nodicornis, 

 is described for this form. Considering our very scanty knowl- 

 edge of the immature stages of crane-flies. Dr. Mueggenburg 's 

 statement that the distribution of the larva is restricted by the 

 distribution of this one moss, Hypmim squarrosum, must be 

 taken to be a little too extreme. I have but little doubt but 

 that the larva of glabrala will be found on other related species 

 of Hypnum when further collections are made. 



The American species, nodicornis, is of especial interest 

 since it is the genotype. The larva was first observed around 

 Ithaca, N. Y., in the spring of 1913. On May 7, Miss Eudora 



