398 TIPULID.S;. 



and quadrinotata, Mg. The markings of the body are more pro- 

 nounced and conspicuous than in Dicranomyia, the species being 

 generally yellow with black stripes, with bauds and spots on the 

 body, and often black rings on the legs, the wings being more 

 brightly ornamented in those species possessing wing markings, 

 though many species have quite clear wings. The colours in 

 Dicranomyia are more obscure : greys, browns, blackish browns 

 and move or less sombre colours generally predominating, and the 

 wings in this genus, though often ornamented prettily, have these 

 patterns of a more delicate and less conspicuous nature. 



Osteu Sacken divided the genus Limnobia tentatively into two 

 groups, to which he refrained from giving names as they were not 

 of sufficient taxouomic value to be regarded as more than con- 

 venient subdivisions to facilitate recognition of species. It is not 

 certain whether these groups are still sufficiently clearly differen- 

 tiated, if the species of the whole world be considered, and in 

 any case there are certainly intermediate species, even among the 

 Oriental ones. 



The larger and more typical species of Limnobia, generally in- 

 cluding most of the brightly coloured ones, as a rule have the 

 marginal cross-vein near the tip of the 1st longitudinal vein.* 

 The ovipositor in the females of this group is shorter, more curved, 

 and much like that of Dicranomyia. Amongst the Oriental species 

 trimaculata, indica and festiva belong here. 



The second group have the marginal cross-vein at some little 

 distance before the tip of the 1st longitudinal, and more or less 

 obscured by the stigma. The female ovipositor in this group is 

 longer, more slender and more pointed than in the first group.t 



The venation, as previously observed, is much more consistent 

 than in Dicranomyia, only L. festiva, Brun., departing from the 

 generic character in having the tip of the auxiliary vein opposite 

 or barely beyond the origin of the 2nd longitudinal vein. In a 

 second species tincAinervis, Brun. the auxiliary vein ends oppo- 

 site the middle of the praefurca ; in all other species it ends more 

 distally than in these two. In longinervis, Brun., all the veins in 

 the distal part of the wing are much lengthened, the submarginal 

 cell and the 1st posterior cell beginning in the middle of the wing. 

 All the other Oriental species depart very little from the typical 

 venation. 



Life-liistory. The larva of Limnobia usually lives in decaying 

 vegetable matter, especially in rotten wood and fungi. Stannius 

 found the larva of L. bifasciata, Schrk. (better known, perhaps, as 

 (vanthoptera, Mg.), in an Agaricus. It was wrapped in a sheath of 

 earthy matter, rough on the outside, smooth and shining on the 



* The European species L. annulus, Mg., quadrinotata, Mg., and bifasciata, 

 Sclirk. (xanthoptera, Mg.), belong to this first group, as do also the North 

 American species cinctipes, Say, soliiaria, Os. Sac., and triocellata, Os. Sac. 



t Amongst European species L. Jlavipes, Mg., nubeculosa, Mg., sylvicola, 

 Schum., and nigropunctata, Schum., belong here. 



