OF THE 



/ UNIVER: 

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New York State Education Department .c 



New York State Museum 



JOHN M. CLARKE Director 



Bulletin 86 

 ENTOMOLOGY 23 



MAY FLIES AND MIDGES OF NEW YORK 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



BY JAMES G. NEEDHAM 



This bulletin includes further results of the study of material 

 gathered under the auspices of the New York entomologic field 

 station, and is therefore complementary to bulletins 47 and 68 

 of this same series. Bulletin 47 contains the more general re- 

 sults of the first field season spent at Saranac Inn, introductory 

 keys to aquatic insect larvae, numerous life histories, and a de- 

 tailed report of the dragonflies (O d o n a t a-A n i s o p t e r a) 

 of New York State. Bulletin 68 contains the main results of 

 the second field season spent at Ithaca, further life histories, 

 detailed reports on the damselflies (Odonata-Zygoptera) 

 of the state, on aquatic plant-beetles (O h r y s o m e 1 i d a e), on 

 certain families of nematocerous diptera, and on American 

 Sialididae; also, an account of the food of the brook trout 

 in Bone pond. 



This bulletin contains the work of three collaborators who 

 have labored apart on the remaining material gathered for the 

 station. Mr O. A. Johannsen furnishes the major part, in the 

 form of a completed review of the Chironomidae. Not- 

 withstanding that these little gnats are enormously abundant 

 everywhere and are of first importance among insects affecting 

 fish culture, this is the first American monograph we have had 

 dealing with the family to which they belong. It is a generic 

 treatment of the world fauna, together with detailed descriptions 

 and life histories (mostly new) of our known species. It is a 



