LOUISIANA CIRCULAR No. 6. 



11 



they nearly all hatch together, and at one minute a wriggling 

 mass is seen obscuring the egg shells from view, while at the 

 next the hundreds of miniature horseflies loosen their hold on 

 the leaf that supported them and go tumbling down into the 

 water, where they separate, and each henceforth looks after its 

 own affairs. \Yhat goes on from this point is more or less 

 vague, but it may be giifssed that not all of the individuals from 

 a single mass of eggs ever live to become adults, for there are 

 plenty of animals, large and small, in the water that must find 

 a living, and the horsefly larvae no doubt constitute a fair por- 

 tion of the food for some of these forms. 



THE LARVAE OF HORSEFLIES. 



The larvae after hatching from the eggs, as referred to 

 above, grow slowly, feeding on animal life of various kinds, 

 until at the end of several months they become full grown and 

 ready to enter the pupal stage. 



The larvae of the different members 

 of the family are very much alike in 

 appearance, but vary somewhat in color 

 and size, and it is often difficult to distinguish 

 the full-grown larvae of small species from 

 the young larva 1 of the larger species. 



When first hatched it appears to be the 

 desire of the larva? to burrow, consequently, 

 if they are not permitted to get to the mud, 

 they crawl into particles of decaying plants, 

 or anything that may be at hand. The im- 

 mature stages of many species probably re- 

 main in the water, or in the mud .very near 

 the edge of the water, during their whole 

 existence as such. The pupae come to the sur- 

 face of the ground a few inches from the 

 edge of the water just before the adults issn<>. 

 and around fresh water ponds at the proper 

 ^tor'sefly season one may see myriads of pupa-skins of 



a,tratu). cer tain species with onlv th^ir anterior ends 

 enlarged. (After 

 Hsirt, Bun. ins. st. pro -jecting above the surface of the ground. 



