236 Prof. L. CG. Miall on Dicranota ; 
to save space I will suppose that the reader is possessed 
of the information contained therein.* 
Mr. R. H. Meade, of Bradford, to whom I am indebted 
for identifying the fly of Dicranota, which was reared in 
captivity, tells me that the species is D. bimaculata, 
Schummel. ‘‘ Nothing,” he adds, ‘‘ has been recorded 
concerning their life-history.” Van der Wulpt gives a 
similar account, ‘‘ Van de gedaantewisseling is niets 
bekend.”’ 
Habitat and Life-history. 
I have found the larve of Dicranota plentiful on the 
muddy banks of a little stream near Leeds, known as 
the Meanwood Beck, and on the margin of a muddy 
pond at Adel, near Leeds. They bury themselves in 
the gravel and mud, and are sometimes fished out of 
the bed of a stream. Full-grown larve are about $ in. 
long,} and of a dirty white colour. They creep with 
ease and rapidity through mud or gravel, and rarely 
expose themselves to view. They can also swim about 
in water with a looping movement. Now and then they 
leave the water altogether. They prey upon T'ubifex 
rwulorum, and the peculiar crochets of this little worm, 
as well as the hemoglobin from its blood-vessels, may 
often be seen in the alimentary canal of the larve.§ 
* Besides the descriptions of Tipulid larve mentioned by Osten 
Sacken (loc. cit., p. 4), the following (since published) are worth 
attention :— 
Ptychoptera. Hammond, in Journ. Micr. and Nat. Sci., vol. 3 
(1884). Some necessary corrections of Lyonnet’s account. 
Ctenophora. Weyenbergh, Beitr. z. Anat. u. Hist. d. Hemi- 
cephalen Dipteren-larven d. Gattung Ctenophora. Haarlem (1872). 
Tipula. Hammond, in Science Gossip (1875). Excellent ana- 
tomical figures of the larva. 
Dina (Tipulide ?). Meinert, De eucephale Myggelarver (1886). 
Brief notices of larve and pupe of a number of Tipulide are 
given by Beling in Abh. der k. k. zool. bot. Gesellsch. (1873, 1878, 
1886). The last of these papers contains a systematic index. 
+ Diptera Neerlandica, p. 388 (1877). 
} A little more when fully extended. 
§ Other examples of carnivorous dipterous larvae (not to mention 
the many cases of parasitic larvae) are furnished by Mochlonyx 
(preying upon Cypris, Daphnia, &e.), Corethra (Daphnia), Tany- 
pus (Entomostraca), Vermileo (small insects), Melithreptus (Aphis), 
Syrphus (Aphis), Pipiza (Aphis), and Mydas fulvwes (insects). 
For the literature of these see Brauer, Zweitliigler d. kais. Mus. zu 
Wien., iii.; in Denkschr. d. kais. Akad. d. Wiss., Bd. xlvii. (1883). 
