54 



DIPT ERA OF MINNESOTA. 



Vig. 39. Wing of a Chirononiid, 

 CItironomus. After Comstock. 



Dia)iicsa ivaltlii, 

 Ceratopogon (?) 



and instead of confining the specimen within a bottle, it is generally 

 smashed, while the mind frames, but does not always give utterance 

 to, a bad word. Aldrich (1904) lists 268 species of Chironomids in 

 North America. Eighty-eight of these species belong to the genus 

 Ceratopogon. In the June, 1905, issue of the Journal of the New 



York Entomological Society, Mr. Coquil- 

 lette described twenty new North Amer- 

 ican species of Ceratopogon, the genus 

 to which the "punkies" or "no-see-ums" 

 belong. 



Species taken in Minnesota are as 

 follows (see also Fig. 14, Plate II) 

 Meig. ; Taiiypns, sp. (several Chiroiioimis sp.) 

 (?) l^aiiytarsits, sp., Coq. ; Tanypus annulatus, Say 

 Tanypus dyari, Coq. ; Tanypus pinguis, Loew. ; Chasmatonotus bimacu- 

 latits, O. S. 



MYCETOPHILIDAE. 



The "Fungus Gnats" are extremely abundant over almost the en- 

 tire globe, and they range from north of the arctic circle to within 

 the tropics. They are, for the most part, small mosquito-like flies, 

 and all have long antennae or "feelers" which, as a rule, are not hairy. 

 The larva or maggot of the species of this family has a distinct head. 

 With us they are found in greenhouses, on window panes in the house, 

 and near and about decaying fungi ; in fact, growers of mushrooms 

 have sometimes to complain because of the 

 fondness of these insects for the edible 

 varieties they raise. The female fly lays 

 her white eggs generally on the under sur- 

 face of the fungus, and frequently the ftmgi, 

 or varieties which are commonly spoken of 

 as "toad stools," will be found in a decay- 

 ing state, and riddled by the small active 

 larvae of these insects. 



One genus in this family, Sciara, and 

 perhaps the only one which does not live 

 on fungi, preferring vegetable mould, cow 

 dung, and the space under the loose bark 

 of dead trees, has a peculiar habit of 

 migrating in large numbers in the larval stage, forming in this process 



Fig. 40. A Mycetophilid. 

 Original. 



