a carnivorous Tipulid larva. 237 
They are capable of enduring a long fast. Before I 
knew their mode of life, I kept them in small vessels 
filled with earth and water, and found that they lived 
and moved about actively for several weeks without 
their customary food.* 
The pupal stage is passed in damp earth, not beneath 
water. As usual in insects of like habits, the pupa 
creeps to the surface shortly before the time has come 
for the emergence of the fly, and it is provided with a 
special armature to enable it to do so (see p. 249). The 
larve can be found at all seasons of the year, and it is 
therefore likely that there is a continual succession of 
flies during the warmer months. 
I have frequently found a large number of Gregarine 
in the stomach of the larva. The species resembles 
Stylorhynchus longicollis, St.,+ from the intestines of 
Blaps mortisaga, but the epimerite or snout is not so 
long. These parasites are probably introduced as spores 
together with the contents of the alimentary canal of 
Tubifex. In this worm the most extraordinary variety 
of organisms can be seen with a high microscopic power 
—Diatoms, Infusoria, and a crowd of germs and spores, 
which may easily include those of a Gregarina. The 
Gregarina is apparently hatched in the stomach of 
Dicranota, for all sizes may be obtained from a single 
larva. 
The fly is well known to systematic entomologists, 
and need not be described here. Of the eggs and the 
process of egg-laying, I know nothing as yet. 
External Features of the Larva. 
The larval head is very elongate and half immersed 
in the prothorax, within which it can be completely 
retracted. The antennez are small and single-jointed ; 
they stand out from the dorsal surface of the head, just 
behind the mandibles, and in front of the eye-spots. 
The mandibles are stout and curved, bearing sharp 
teeth. The inner margin bears a fan-like bunch of 
* The larva may naturally be looked for in places where Twbifex 
is plentiful, but whether it is common or not can only be ascer- 
tained when naturalists in different parts of the country have 
searched for it. The fly, as I learn from Mr. Meade, is said to 
be rare. 
+ Biitschli’s Protozoa, Taf. xxxvii., fig. 2. 
