SOME ANNOYING PESTS OF MAN 333 



the larvae in some dirty water holes in the hollows of pop- 

 lar stumps in company with larvae of mosquitoes. The 

 eggs were not found. Evidently the larvae live upon the 

 material found in the dirty water and upon the dead 

 wrigglers as well as on the cast skins of the larvae and 

 pupae of the mosquitoes. He also found them apparently 

 devouring a rat-tailed maggot, the 

 larva of a fly that lives in filthy 

 water. 



The larva of this Virginia punkie, 

 when full-grown, is not quite one-fifth 

 of an inch long, and it is very 

 slender, in fact, thread-like in appear- 

 ance (Fig. 115). Moreover, it is 

 white in color, with a brownish head 

 and appears much like a very small 

 worm. It has twelve segments in 

 the body, besides the head, and 

 moves with a sinuous motion like a 

 snake. The larvae frequently rise to 

 the surface of the water and then 

 descend and squirm along the bottom. FIG. 115. Larva and 

 Pratt kept some of the larvae through 

 the winter in a cold room where the 

 water did not freeze. In the spring the larvae trans- 

 formed to pupae from which adult flies issued from April 

 27th to May 8th. He remarks that it is possible that- 

 these larvae freeze up in the water during the winter, 

 then thaw out in the spring and complete the life history 

 of the insect. 



The pupa (Fig. 115) is about one-eighth of an inch long, 

 of a brown color, and has eight abdominal segments. It 



