THE FUNGUS MIDGES. 79 



Some nearly allied species, forming the genus Ctenopkora, have the antennae very beautifully 

 pectinated in the males, each joint, from the fourth onwards, having either one or two pairs of 

 branches. The Ctenophorce, are more robust insects, and have a more rapid flight than the Tipulce, 

 and they are generally adorned with brighter colours, principally tawny or ferruginous yellow 

 in combination with black. These insects reside in wooded localities, and their larvae feed upon 

 rotten wood. The largest and commonest British species is CtenopJtora pectinicornis (PI. 62, B), the 

 female of which is nearly an inch long. Its general colour is black, with two yellow streaks on the 

 thorax, and with the abdomen tawny, but with the extremity and a streak down the middle black. 



The larvae of the genus Triclwcera, three species of which are generally distributed in Britain, 

 also live in decayed wood and in fungi and decaying vegetables. They are much smaller and more 

 delicate than the insects hitherto referred to, and, in fact, are true Midges., which may be distinguished 

 as WINTER MIDGES, from their not only surviving the winter in the perfect state, but also taking 

 advantage of any spell of mild weather to come out and perform the usual Midge-dances in great 

 companies. The commonest species is T. hiemalis, which may almost constantly be found in mild 

 weather upon the glass of windows even in large cities. 



The family includes many other small and often more or less Midge-like species, the larvae of most 

 of which live in the earth, or in fungi and rotten wood. Of these the genus Limnobia alone possesses 

 over fifty British species. The larva of a European species of that genus (L. repUcata) is aquatic in 

 its habits, and has its body furnished with numerous long filaments, which appear to be supplied 

 internally with air tubes, and are probably branchial in their function. In the genus Ptychoptera 

 also, of which two or three species inhabit Britain, the preparatory stages are passed through in the 

 water, the larva being a long, worm-like creature, much narrower towards the posterior end, from 

 which springs a very long and slender tube serving for respiratory purposes, conveying air to a pair of 

 trachea? which extend through the body, whilst in the pupa a similar delicate air tube originates from 

 the anterior extremity. 



FAMILY IV. MYCETOPHILID^E. 



The insects of this family, which may be called FUNGUS MIDGES, are of small size, and generally 

 of very delicate structure. They have usually shorter antennae than the insects of the preceding 

 families, but these organs are longer than the head, slender, simple, and composed of fifteen or 

 sixteen joints ; the eyes are round, and there are on the vertex either two or three ocelli ; the front of 

 the head is not produced ; the palpi are long and four-jointed, but the last joint is not greatly 

 elongated and ringed ; the wings have but few veins and no cells on the disc, and the legs are of 

 moderate length with elongated coxae and the posterior tibiae spined. In one genus (Epidapus) both 

 wings and halteres are deficient. 



The perfect Mycetophilidae are very active insects, generally found in damp situations upon 

 herbage, upon which they run freely and are able to spring by means of their hind legs. The 

 species ai-e numerous and generally Midge-like. They often come into houses, and may be found upon 

 the windows. Although the antennae are usiially short, they are considerably elongated in some 

 genera ; in Bolitopkila and Macrocera especially they are very long, in the latter sometimes three 

 times the length of the body. 



The larvae generally feed upon fungi of various kinds, but especially upon the Boleti which grow 

 upon trees ; those of some species, however, are found under the bark of dead trees and about 

 decaying vegetable matter of different kinds. Most of the larvae, which are slender vermiform 

 creatures, spin a delicate silken web, within which they live, and many of them are gregarious 

 in their habits. The larvae of Rhyphus fenestralis, which may be referred to this family, although 

 regarded as the type of a distinct group by many writers, are very long and slender, and are found to 

 inhabit cow-clung. The larva of Sciara militaris, a small black insect with black wings and the lower 

 surface of the abdomen yellow, occurs in enormous abundance in the forests of some parts of Europe, 

 and when about to undergo their change to the pupa state collect in immense numbei-s and travel 

 together in a compact body, forming a band on the ground some three or four inches broad. 

 From the compact order in which they advance they have received the name of the ARMY-WORM 

 \Heerwurm), and their trains have been observed as much as twelve feet long. 



