30 NORTH AMERICAN DIPTERA. 



out in a little more than a week. The larvae are ash-gray or 

 brownish in color, more or less transparent, composed of twelve 

 segments. The head is incompletely differentiated and re- 

 tractile, and has the maxillae and mandibles more or less horny 

 and stout; there are short fleshy antennae. The organs of 

 locomotion generally consist of transverse swellings on the 

 under side of the body, provided with very minute, stiff bris- 

 tles. The anal end of the body is truncate, with a single pair of 

 spiracles ; and the margins of the truncature are for the most 

 part provided with fleshy retractile processes of variable size 

 and shape. In the aquatic larvae there is a long tube at the 

 end of the body which serves for breathing when raised to the 

 surface of the water. 



Most of the larvae live in the earth or in soil-like, decom- 

 posing wood, in fungi, or in water. Others live on the leaves 

 of plants and are like caterpillars in appearance, the resem- 

 blance to which is yet more heightened by the green color, 

 with a crest of tubercles on the back. 



The pupae, like those of many of the members of this sub- 

 order are free. The thorax has two horn-like processes which 

 represent the thoracic spiracles, one of which may acquire a 

 very great length, for the purpose of breathing from the sur- 

 face while under water. The abdominal segments have trans- 

 verse rows of hairs, bristles or spines, which enable the pupa 

 to escape from its place of concealment when about to com- 

 plete its metamorphosis. 



The adult flies are commonly seen in the late summer 

 and autumn. They will be most usually met with in meadow- 

 lands and forests, flying awkwardly for a few steps, close to 

 the ground till they become entangled in the grass or twigs, 

 and then, extricating themselves, rising again to repeat the 

 same aimless, clumsy flight. 



The name of " daddy-long-legs " is the one most usually 

 applied to members of this family in England, but in America 

 this term is commonly used to designate the Phalangidae or 



