864 CHARLES PAUL ALEXANDER 



Limnophila (Lasiomastix) macrocera (Say) 



1823 Limnobia macrocera Say. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci Phila., vol. 3, p. 20. 



Limnophila macrocera is a common swamp-inhabiting crane-fly, the 

 larvae living in organic mud. At Orono, Maine, the writer found larvae 

 of this species associated with larvae of Bittacomorpha davipes, Pilaria 

 tenuipes, P. recondita, Erioptera chlorophylla, and other crane-flies, as 

 well as with leeches, snails, worms of many kinds, and other forms of 

 life. The larva is similar to that of other related species. When placed 

 in water it is very active and has the habit of darting the anterior quarter 

 of its body from one side to the other, suggesting the striking of a reptile. 

 The pupal duration is not more than eight days (June 24 to July 2, June 

 28 to July 6). 



Larva. Length, 14.5-15 mm. 

 Diameter, 1.4 mm. 



Coloration, pale yellowish white. 



Body terete, narrowed toward both ends but more noticeably toward anterior end. 

 Integument covered with a dense appressed pubescence. Chaetotaxy as follows: two stout 

 setae on both dorsal and ventral margins of prothoracic orifice; thorax with pencils of stiff 

 setae near anterior margins of segments, two large lateral tufts and a smaller ventral pair; 

 abdominal segments with a pencil of similar bristles on ventro-lateral margins, one on 

 anterior half, the other midlength, of each ring; a seta at posterior lateral angles of sternites; 

 four setae in a transverse row near posterior margin of tergites, the lateral pair the larger; 

 lateral margins of cauda near base of lateral lobes and above gills with pencils of blackish 

 setae; basal part of segments on both sternum and tergum with transverse parallel rows of 

 fine scabrous points, this area very narrow on second abdominal segment, consisting only 

 of three or four rows, the areas gradually becoming broader and the rows more numerous, 

 there being on sixth and seventh segments about 28 to 30 rows which occupy nearly the 

 basal third of segments. 



Spiracular disk ( Plate XLIV, 208) surrounded by four lobes; ventral pair the longest, lateral 

 pair a little shorter; ventral lobes near tips with a brush of delicate, exceedingly long hairs 

 which curl into loops at tips, the longest of these hairs about twice length of lobes bearing 

 them; this fringe of hairs continuous around disk, longest at ends of lobes, gradually shortened 

 toward their bases but not interrupted; lateral lobes with terminal hairs a little shorter but 

 still longer than lobes themselves; inner faces of lobes delicately margined with dark brown, 

 those of ventral lobes having the outer lateral margins the broadest. Spiracles rather small, 

 located at base of lateral lobes. Anal gills four, very stout and plump. 



Head capsule with a framework of long, slender plates, as is usual in this group. Labrum 

 (Plate XLIV, 205) broadly transverse; anterior margin irregularly rounded; anterior median 

 area truncated, with the lateral angles slightly projecting, cut off squarely, each with a small, 

 hyaline, sensory papilla; laterad and caudad of each, two sensory papillae, the innermost 

 elongate-cylindrical, more than twice length of short, oval, outer one. Epipharyngeal 



