1894. 1 



129 



CLUNIO MARINUS, HALIDAY: A MAEINE CHIRONOMID. 



BY GEORGE H. CARPENTER B.Sc. 



It is now nearly forty years since Haliday* described the male o£ 

 this small marine Dipteron from specimens taken on the coast of 

 Kerry, and subsequently recorded the occurrence of stray individuals 

 in Dublin Bay.f Since then, no observations of the species appear to 

 have been made, as Mr. Theobald, in his recent work on British 

 Dljptera,% is only able to copy Ilaliday's description and figures. It 

 is, therefore, with great satisfaction that I announce the re-discovery, 

 on the Irish coast, of this interesting insect, especially as I have 

 obtained the hitherto unknown female, eggs, and larva. Pending the 

 detailed researches, which I hope to be able to make into the structure 

 and life-history of the midge, the present short account of the chief 

 points observed may be of interest. 



On April 28th, when walking along the shore of Killiney Bay, 

 Co. Dublin, with a party of the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, Mr. 

 "W. F. de y. Kane called my attention to a number of small flies 

 moving very quickly over the surface of the water in the rock-pools. 



These proved to be males of 

 CJunio marinus, and, as described 

 by Haliday, they were skimming 

 over the surface, with their wings 

 in rapid vibration. A little fur- 

 ther on, we discovered quite a 

 colony of them on a mass of 

 green sea-weed {Oladoiphora) 

 covering a rock which had been 

 left exposed by the tide. On 

 some of the weed with the insects 

 upon it being placed in a tube 

 and examined, it became clear 

 that we had now secured both 

 sexes, for two of the males were 

 carrying about with them (at- 

 tached in cop.') wingless females 

 Pig 1 (fig. 1). These, when captured, 



had their abdomens distended with eggs, and appeared of a dull 

 greenish-yellow colour. The female Clunio is much degraded. Not 



* Nat. History Review, vol. ii, 1855, Proc., p. 52, pi. 2. t lb., vol. iii, 18.56, Proc., p. 73. 

 t " An Account of BritiBh Plies," vol. i : K. Stock, London, 1892 (pp. 19.5—6). 



