Vo\. Xxix] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 1 39 



larva can only progress upon a moist surface and this is pro- 

 vided by the secretion from the enormously developed sali- 

 vary glands. A shining silky trail remains after the larva has 

 moved on and the secretion dried. The larva feeds upon 

 fungi occurring upon the surface of the bamboo leaves, mow- 

 ing these off with its peculiar serrate mandibles (Plate VIII, 

 fig. 5). Holmgren had great difficulty in rearing the larvae, 

 partly from inability to maintain suitable conditions, but es- 

 pecially from the frequent infestation of the larvse with small 

 parasitic dipterous larvse. Finally Holmgren succeeded in 

 rearing a single imago and this proved to belong to the genus 

 Mycetophila and was described as a new species under the 

 name M. ancylifonnans. The larva when about to pupate 

 threw ofif its shell and constructed a cocoon of salivary- threads, 

 consisting of an outer layer of large meshes and an_ inner 

 closely woven one which rather closely covered the pupa 

 within. 



The larva? found by the junior author in Porto Rico were 

 very similar to those discovered by Holmgren ; they were 

 dirty white and, like them, carried a black shell formed of 

 their own excrement. The larvae were first found in October, 

 1916, near the town of Aibonito, on the edge of the woods 

 and at an altitude of about 2000 feet. They occurred upon 

 the leaves of Guama ( Iiiga laurina) and extensive search 

 yielded only five of them, the largest one about four milli- 

 meters in length. A further careful search in the same local- 

 ity recently (June, 1917) was unsuccessful. Very recently 

 (July, 191 7) larvse of the same kind were found in consider- 

 able numbers on the under surfaces of leaves of "poma rosa" 

 (Eugenia jamhosa L.) in a narrow valley near Mayaguez. 

 A single male was reared from the larvse found at Aibonito, 

 and another male from the larvse found near Mayaguez ; 

 through these two specimens the specific unity of all the larvae 

 is established. 



The dung-covering of the larva consists of a dull blackish, 

 rather rough mass of homogeneous material. Its shape differs 

 more or less in our specimens from that described and figured 



