310 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



jected wliich are designed to show what minimum ex- 

 posure to optimum or favorable conditions may alternate 

 daily with unfavorable or even prohibitive conditions and 

 still permit a normal development of the fungus, and 

 studies are being made of some of the problems relating 

 to the behavior of this fungus under subterranean con- 

 ditions upon which it is hoped a further report may be 

 made in the near future. 



NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF A CRANE- 

 FLY OF THE GENUS GERANOMYIA HALI- 

 DAY (TIPULIDAE, DIPTERA) 



By C. p. Alexander and J. R. Malloch, Natural His- 

 tory Survey, Urban a 



The genus Geranomyia was erected in 1833 by Haliday 

 (Entomol. Magaz., vol. 1, p. 154) for a species, G. uni- 

 color, occurring near the sea-shore in England and Ire- 

 land. Since the date of its establishment, approximately 

 eighty species have been added to this genus, the mem- 

 bers being found in all the major regions of the world. 



The habits of the adult flies have been discussed rather 

 frequently in the literature but data on the immature 

 stages are quite lacking. When we consider the com- 

 paratively large size of the genus and its wide distribu- 

 tion throughout the world, this fact becomes very strik- 

 ing and Geranomyia may be considered as being the larg- 

 est genus of crane-flies that has thus remained unknown. 

 Mr. Malloch, one of the authors of this paper, was the 

 first to locate the breeding-haunts of a species of Ger- 

 anomyia and to ascertain the rather peculiar life-history. 

 The notes made at the time of this original discovery in 

 1917 and the subsequent observations made by both 

 authors in 1919 are briefly recorded in the present article. 



The adult flies of species of Geranomyia are all of 

 medium size. They are distinguished from all other 

 crane-flies by the structure of the elongate rostrum 

 which is approximately one-half the length of the body, 



