MAY PLIES AND MIDGES OF NEW YORK 107 



Submenus 2. Sphaeromyas Stephens 



Catalogue Brit. Dipt. 236. 1829; Curtis Brit Ins. 6:285. 

 (P1.17, fig.16; pl.18, figs. 13, 14) 



In the figure given by Curtis the tarsal claws resemble Win- 

 nertz's (1852) pl.I, fig.!5a, and the wing pi. VIII, fig. 63. 



Wing bare, five radial cells, K 2 present, crossvein-like ; media 

 simple; some or all the femora spinose beneath; terminal joint 

 of the tarsi armed with a double row of spiny bristles, each claw 

 (at least in the female) with a tooth on the inner side. Belongs 

 to group Ceratopogon. Type of the genus C . fascia- 

 t u s Meigen (= albomarginatus >Steph) . Several Ameri- 

 can species. 



Sphaeromyas argentatus Loew 

 1861 Ceratopogon Loew. Berl. Ent Zeit 310 



The egg-laying of this species was first observed by Professor 

 Needham, by whom my attention was called to it. During the 

 latter days of June and the first of July about sundown the 

 female fly hovers about three or four inches above the water's 

 surface close to the shore in a place sheltered by the shrubs and 

 weeds. With the head pointing toward the shore and the body 

 swaying rhythmically laterally to and fro, the egg-laying begins. 

 The eggs are enclosed in a gelatinous ribbon, placed at right 

 angles to the long axis. A short section of this ribbon with the 

 eggs side by side is shown on pl.31, fig.9. The ribbon when de- 

 posited is about 1.5 inches in length, flat, and appears wrinkled 

 like a paraffin ribbon. The lateral swaying of the body at the be- 

 ginning of the egg-laying is of about one inch amplitude, but as the 

 ribbon of eggs increases, the amplitude decreases until just before 

 deposition it is less than J inch. When the egg string is about J 

 inch long the fly seizes it with her hind and middle legs, the hind 

 legs guiding, the middle legs paying out the string as its length 

 increases. The fore legs are folded up under the body. This 

 egg-laying process occupies from three to five minutes; when 

 completed the fly suddenly darts down to the water's surface, 

 deposits her eggs and flies away. 



The eggs when first laid are whitish, but later, as develop- 

 ment progresses, they become brown. Each egg is about 0.4 mm. 

 in length by .07 in width; somewhat pointed at one end and 



