DIPTERA. — MYCETOPHILIDES. 521 
fusiform, depressed, with a slender, straight, cylindrical tail, longer than 
the preceding segment. The pupa has two short appendages, thick- 
ened at the tips behind the head; the abdomen is tapering. Mr. 
Thwaites has found the pupa of another species of this genus in a 
dead snail’s shell. * 
One of the species of this genus, first noticed by Latreille and 
Dufour, is remarkable for possessing two appendages at the front of 
the thorax, and which Latreille considered as analogous to the pre- 
balancers of the Strepsiptera. Mr. Haliday since detected them in a 
species which he thence named P. auriculata, and Mr. Curtis suggests 
that they are accidental, and appear to him to be the analogues of the 
appendages of the pupa. Robineau Desvoidy also described one of 
the Culicidz with somewhat similar appendages. 
The subfamily Myceropuitipes Meg. (Fungivores Laér.) consists 
of insects of small size ( fig. 125.11. Mycetophila punctum Séann.), 
distinguished by having two or three unequal-sized ocelli (fig. 125. 12. 
head and antenna of Sciophila); the eyes are generally round; the 
head not rostrated; the antenne slender, 15- or 16-jointed, and longer 
than the bead, or compressed, never fasciculated ; the last joint of the 
palpi is of moderate length, not ringed; the coxe are elongated; pos- 
terior tibiae spined, and mostly with strong spurs; the nerves of the 
wings are not so numerous as in the following insects. 
This subfamily is composed of extremely active insects, capable of 
leaping by means of their hind legs. They are particularly found in — 
damp situations, amongst various plants; many species enter our 
* The following is the description of the pupa which Mr. Thwaites has been so 
kind as to send me, and which is a line and a quarter long. 
« Head resting between the anterior femora and tibiw; the antenne embracing 
the exterior of these, and reaching to the apex of the tibiae; thorax with a strong 
central keel extending from the head to the metathorax (?), which is smooth; the 
thorax is also furnished anteriorly with two horn-like appendages (analogous, I 
presume, to the breathing pores of the pupa of Culex), slightly diverging and curved 
a little forwards, which arise from tubercles half way between the carina and the 
origin of the wings;° posterior tarsi reaching almost to the apex of the wings, 
merely the last joint is visible, the rest being concealed by the intermediate legs, 
and these last are covered, except about two joints of the tarsi, by the anterior legs ; 
abdomen with a row of pointed tubercles down each side; the dorsal segments are 
nearly smooth, the last slightly bifureate, the ventral segments with a row of 
small sharp spines just above their edges, the anal segment with two rather large 
spines,” 
