MAY FLJES AND MIDGES OF NEW YORK 121 



and the antennae are shorter and of fewer joints (7) than are 

 those of the male (whose antennae are 11-jointed). The male, 

 by means of his strong claspers (so marked a character of the 

 species), was able to hold the body of the female out in a straight 

 line with his own, and thus carry her about; so that when he 

 walked on the glass of the tube her legs could be seen kicking 

 freely in the air. 



During the next day each of the females laid about seventy 

 eggs, enclosed like those of C h i r o n o m u s in a gelatinous tube. 

 The egg is narrowly spindle-shaped, and measures 0.16 mm. in 

 length. By the morning of the second day egg-laying seemed to 

 have finished, and the body of the mother became much shrivelled 

 up. As in both sexes the mouth parts are vestigial, it is probable 

 that life in the imaginal state is short. 



Further examination of the Oladophora revealed a larva 

 of the Chironomid type, which there can be little doubt is 

 that of C 1 u n i o (fig.ll) . This larva (4 mm. long) is, excepting 

 the head, which is brown, of a green color, closely agreeing with 

 the sea-weed on which it feeds and lives. The head bears two 

 deep black ocelli on each side (the posterior much larger than 

 the anterior) and a pair of two-jointed antennae. The mandibles 

 are powerful, armed with teeth, and articulated so as to move in 

 almost vertical planes, though somewhat inclined inwards. They 

 act, in conjunction with the serrated labial plate, as scissor-like 

 cutters. There are twelve body segments, the first and last of 

 which are each provided with a pair of sucker feet, the an- 

 terior pair armed with numerous spines, and the posterior with a 

 few hooks. This larva has not the ribbon-like appendages and 

 special breathing processes found in that of Chironomus. 

 Chevrel (1894) states that the female has no halteres; that the 

 labium of the larva has six or eight teeth, and that the last abdomi- 

 nal segment of larva has two long divergent setae. No North 

 American species have been recorded. 



GROUP TANYPUS 



T a n y p u s Meigen. Illiger's Mag. 2 : 261. 1803 



This group includes the genera Procladius, Anatopynia, Ab- 

 labesmyia, Isoplastus, Tanypus and probably also Pentaneura, 

 Podonomus, and Heptagyia. 



