360 TIPULID.E. 



at the tip m the male. Genitalia complicated and peculiar in 

 structure.* Legs slender, tibiae with distinct spurs at the tips ; 

 fore coxre short ; empodia distinct. Wings with one submarginal 

 cell, five (normally) posterior cells, t and the discal cell closed. 

 The auxiliary vein ends abruptly neither in the costa nor in the 

 1st longitudinal vein, but sometimes it is indistinctly connected 

 near its tip with the latter. The 1st longitudinal vein turns down 

 at its tip into the 2nd ; a more or less indistinct cross-vein connects 

 it with the costa. The 2nd vein begins about the middle of the 

 wing, the praefurca forming about half its length ; the 1st longi- 

 tudinal vein meets the 2nd soon after the origin of the 3rd vein, 

 which commences just before the middle of the 2ud vein, forming 

 with the 2nd vein a fork, the submarginal cell thus being 

 triangular. Anterior cross-vein at origin of 3rd vein, uniting 

 with the discal cell at one-third the length of the latter; discal 

 cell closed, more or less oblong ; anterior branch of 4tli vein 

 forked soon after quitting discal cell, the veiulets more or less 

 parallel ; J posterior cross-vein just beyond discal cell; 7th vein 

 comparatively short. 



lianr/e. The few species known are distributed through Europe, 

 North America (including Alaska), and South America, in addition 

 to India. 



Life-h>. story. The metamorphoses of a moderately common 

 European species, Cylindrotoma distiuctissima, Mg., have been 

 observed by more than one biologist. The larva has the ex- 

 ceptional character of living on the undersides of the leaves 

 of low-growing plants, like the caterpillar of a Lepidopterous 

 insect. It is green, elongate, flattened, linear, only a little 

 pointed at each end, M'ith a longitudinal crest along its back, 

 consisting of a row of fleshy processes pointing backwards ; the 

 lateral margin is broad, with many excisions, formed by fleshy 

 points. The larva, before transforming, quits its food-plant and 

 attaches itself to a stalk of grass, on which to undergo the pupa 

 state. The pupa bears some resemblance to that of a Lepi- 

 dopterous insect, the thorax bearing several horny processes. 



* Osten Sacken says : — " The long narrow linear horny lamella, which 

 usually protrudes when the living insect opens its forceps, ends in three sharp 

 points." SjDeaking of the ovipositor of the female, he continues: — "It is 

 rather large, tlie upper valves are lamelliform towards the tip, and the lower 

 ones are curved in such a manner as to leave a considerable empty space 

 between them and the upper ones." 



t If my new species is correctly placed here, the generic description must 

 read, "four or five posterior cells." 



J Schiner, in describing Cyliiuh-otoma dhtinctissima, Mg., the commonest of 

 the European species, infers that the forking of the anterior branch of the 4th 

 vein is not always constant, so that specimens of tliis species may have four or 

 five posterior cells accordingly. In Needham's figure of the wing of this 

 species he shows the auxiliary vein very distinctly turning up into the costa, 

 -with an equally distinct subcostal cross-vein near its tip, uniting it to 

 the 1st longitudinal vein near the tip of the latter. This is a mistaken 

 interpretation. 



