some Parthenogeneti'c Cliiionotnida?. 22."» 



newly liiitchrd larva, as soon as it lias freed itself from t?ie 

 jelly of the e«;j^-inass, loses no time in niakinj; itself a case. 

 I was not fortunate enonj;li to ol»ser»e the pcoecss of forma- 

 tion, hilt apjiarently these cnses consist chiefly (<f salivarv 

 secretion, to which njinute |tarli<les adhere. Since 1 could 

 never lind any small empty cases, I am led to believe that 

 the hirva increases the size of the ori<i:inal case as it j^rows ; 

 but more observations are needed on this point, since the 

 material of the case docs not seem to be partindarlv cla*»tic. 

 The larva can turn coiiipUtcly round in its case and protrude 

 its head from cither end ; in movinj; about from j)lace to 

 place it sometimes comes out as far as the filth or sixth 

 al)ilominal segment, but I never saw one completely leave 

 its case — iu fact, i' is probable that the hump on the back 

 of the eighth and the large ventral blood-gills on the seventh 

 segment would prevent its being able to do so. 



Hcfore |)npation the hirva usually moors its case by one 

 end in such a position that the other end is close to or 

 touclnr.g the surface of the water. The pupa leaves the 

 larval case only a short time before the emergence of the 

 adult (I have not seen a free pupa, but have oidy f<Mind the 

 skins floating on the surface of the water). A very note- 

 worthy point is that the lar\a skin seems never to be 

 c )mpletcly .shed, but remains aitached to the al):lomen of 

 the pupa : pupae removed from their cases, as well as cast 

 l)upal skins collected on the surface, always had the larval 

 skin attached *. 



The adult, when frcsldy euicrged, has still much of the 

 blood-red colour of the larva — which, indeed, is the case 

 with other (.'hironomidie having blood-red larva?. Another 

 point worthy of special icm,.rk is the resting jjosition of the 

 adult fly, the front legs being held iu a peculiar manner 

 which 1 have not observed in any other Cliironomid. The 

 front femora are directed straight forwards, so that their 

 clubbed tips almost or quite touch in front of the head ; the 

 tibia* and tarsi are bent right back at an angle of about 40° 

 with the body. A somcvhat similar posture is adopted bv 

 8< me small species of 'J imytursus, wliich hold their front 

 tibiae and tarsi at right angles to the l)ody ; but I do not 

 know of another instance in the Chirononiinjc in which the 

 normal manner of holding the front legs is departed from. 



♦ Miall and Ilnmniond, in tlieir raonopranh on the ' Harlequin-flv * 

 (p. l.W), note tluit " vccnsi'oiitil/i/ tljo larval sKin is still adliorent to tlie 

 ]iu]tn wLcn the fly eiuerge^." 



