The Crane Flies 



even upon the leaves of plants. Some of the earth-inhabiting 

 forms destroy grass and grain by injuring the roots. They 

 breathe through two anal spiracles which in aquatic species are 

 placed at the tip of a long process. The pupal stigmatic tube is 

 set anteriorly, the same change from the anal end to the head end 

 taking place in the transformation to pupa as occurs with the 

 mosquitoes. The pupa itself resembles somewhat a Lepidop- 

 terous pupa. 



The adult flies are commonly seen in the late summer and 

 are found in pastures and woods, sometimes, especially with the 

 smaller species, swarming towards sundown. More than one 

 thousand species are known and about three hundred of them 

 occur in the United States. Certain forms appear in the early 

 spring and there is a curious wingless genus Chionea the 

 species of which are found upon the snow. 



The wings of the crane flies are generally clear but are some- 

 times beautifully marked and spotted as in Limnobia and Tipula. 

 The large and beautiful Pedicia albimttata Walk has striking 

 brown bands on a white wing surface. It is found in the White 

 mountains and the Catskill mountains, as well as in the far north- 

 west and in Alaska. Bittacomorpha with its short wings and 

 banded legs and swollen feet is a most striking form. The Cali- 

 fornia genus Holorusia contains the giants of the family and H. 

 grandis has a wing spread of more than three inches. The colors 

 of the crane flies are usually dull, but in Ctenophora the body 

 is frequently brilliantly marked with red. In this genus the ab- 

 domen is pointed so as to resemble the ovipositor of some 

 Hymenopterous insects and the male abdomen is swollen at the 

 tip almost like that of one of the so-called " Scorpion flies " of the 

 family Panorpidae (q. v.). 



Life History of a Crane Fly 



( Bittacomorplia clavipes Fab.J 



Comparatively few species of this family have been carefully 

 studied, but in his important paper on the " Entomology of the 

 Illinois River and Adjacent Waters," Mr. C. A. Hart records some 

 interesting facts concerning this species. The genus Bittaco- 

 morpha is found exclusively in America and the larvae of the in- 



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