522 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
houses, and are found on the windows. They are also very partial 
to different species of boleti and fungi, in which the larve reside. 
The larva of Ceroplatus tipuloides, observed by Réaumur (Mém. 
tom. v. tab. 4. f. 11—18.), on the under side of the Boletus angulatus, 
is completely vermiform, hyaline, and always covered with a viscid 
secretion. It spins a web, in which it invests itself; and it is in the 
same situation that it assumes the pupa state. The larva of another 
species of this genus, observed by Bosc in Carolina, is gregarious ; 
living in a common web, upon the under surface of a boletus; and 
each spins a close cocoon, in which it assumes the pupa state. (Latr. 
Hist. Nat., Se. tom. xiv. p.281.) More recently M. Dufour has 
communicated to the “ Académie” a memoir on this genus, contain- 
ing a complete account of the habits, transformations, and anatomy, 
and descriptions of five species. (Révue Zool. Soc. Cuvier. 1839, 
No. 4.) 
De Geer has figured the transformations of two species of Myceto- 
phila (M. agarici and fusca, Meém. tom. vi. tab. 21. f.6—13., and 
tab. 22. f. 1—13.). The larvee of both are vermiform, the former being 
more elongated, and enclosing itself in a silken web; the latter 
(fig. 125. 18., which lives in Boletus luteus) is thicker, with a small 
head, bearing two short antenne, and the body furnished with two 
spiracles on the prothoracic, and two on each of the seven basal joints 
of the abdominal part of the body.* Bouché has also figured the 
transformations of Mycetophila signata Meig. (Naturg. tab. 3. f. 5—9., 
representing the mandibles of the larva as armed with several short 
sharp teeth. 
The larve of Boletophila, described by Guérin (Annal. Sci. Nat. 
Aug. 1827, and Bullét. Sci. Nat. Jan. 1829), live in society, in the 
interior of fungi, like those of the Mycetophile ; the head is furnished 
with two short membranous antenne and two hooked mandibles; they 
undergo their transformations in the earth; the pupz have the limbs 
* Dufour has also observed this in various fungivorous larve (see Rév. Zool. Soc. 
Cuvier. 1839, No. 7.); and Meigen observed the same in Mycetophila fasciata 
(Syst. Beschr. vol. i. p. 261.). Stannius observes, that Mr. MacLeay, overlooking 
this description, has erred in asserting that this arrangement of the spiracles is not 
found in any Dipterous larva. The same author also, relying upon the veining of 
the wings, states that the fossil insects, figured by Curtis (Hdinb. New Phil. Journ. 
1829, tab. 6. f. 8, 9.) as species of Gnoriste, belong to the genus Mycetophila; one 
being closely allied to M. propinqua, and the other to M. lateralis. (Obs. de g. 
Mycetophila, Introd. p. vii.) 
