780 CHARLES PAUL ALEXANDER 



The genus Bittacomorphella contains but two described species, the 

 genotype, B. jonesi (Johns.), and the larger B. sackenii (Roder) from 

 western America, the immature stages of which are wholly unknown. 

 There is no published literature on the biology of this group of crane-flies. 



Bittacomorphella jonesi (Johns.) 



1905 Bittacomorpha jonesi Johns. Psyche, vol. 12, p. 75-76. 



Bittacomorphella jonesi is a curious little phantom crane-fly, not uncom- 

 mon in cold Canadian woods thruout the Northern States, where it is 

 usually found near running water or springs and often in small, dark 

 ravines or along shaded runs. The adult flies sometimes lurk beneath 

 low, dark bridges and culverts, where they are often associated with 

 species of Dolichopeza and Oropeza. An account of the habits of the 

 adults of this species may be found in an earlier paper by the writer 

 (Alexander, 19 16 b: 545-546). 



The larval habitat is very different from that of other local species 

 of the family, which, as a rule, prefer open swamps, swales, or wet 

 meadows. The larvae of this species live in rich organic mud in shaded 

 woods. They were first found on the Bool hillside at Ithaca, New York, 

 beneath decaying beech leaves in wet or damp mud which was mixed 

 with old beechnuts, hulls, acorns, butternuts, broken decayed twigs, 

 and similar debris. The Bool area is a very steep hillside with a general 

 northern exposure, heavily shaded with tall forest trees. In former days 

 it extended far to the eastward and was connected with Slim Jim Woods, 

 near the second bridge in Forest Home. The cut area is now a pasture, 

 but patches of skunk cabbage and cat-tails still persist. On the shaded 

 hillside the skunk cabbage occupies pockets or level areas where the soil 

 is largely calcareous. The forest cover consists of beech, hard maple, 

 basswood, yellow birch, red oak, butternut, elm, a few large alders, a 

 few aspens, and on the surrounding hillside a thick stand of hemlock. 

 The shrubs include Ribes floridum L'Her., Cornus alternifolia Linn, f., and 

 similar species. The herbage at this season is of the dominant skunk 

 cabbage, young seedlings of Impatiens hi flora Walt., Geum rivale Linn., 

 and Cardamine Douglassii (Torr.) Britt. In places there are thick mats 

 of mosses, Brachythecium rutabulum (Linn.) B. & S., on the limy soil, and 

 Amblystegium on decaying prostrate limbs. 



