10 Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 
. Antennae much shorter than the head, very small insects. 
Bogeity Neelidae: Folsom. wae 
Antennae longer than the head, body size variable. Family 
Sminthuridae Lubbock. 
' FAMILY Poduridae LUBBOCK, 1870 
Pronotum well developed and furnished with dorsal setae ; 
antennae thick and heavy and usually not much longer than the 
head ; anal horns sometimes present; furcula present or absent. 
Podura aquatica L., 1758 
Figures 1-2. Length .5-1.8 mm; short thick body; dark 
brown to black; two darker eyespots; antennae 3- segmented, 
segments to each other as 1, 1. 4, 2; feet with only the unguls ; 
dentes slightly bowed outward and With the distal half annulate. 
Specimens are often found attached to weed stems slightly 
above the surface of the water along the margins of lakes 
and ponds. Others are on the surface of the water. Shaking 
the weeds causes them to jump to the surface of the water 
where they seemingly jump about at random until they by chance 
come near an upright weed stem where they attach themselves. 
Some live animals were kept in upright glass tubes and it was 
found that they will crawl or jump toward a source of light. 
They do not apparently prefer a dark background as one would 
expect becaause of their dark black or brown bodies. This 
species occurs in large numbers and is of importance as food 
for small fish. - It is, cosmopolitan. . Records: December 26, 1936, 
one mile south of . Warrensburg, Mo., (E. D. Bueker) ; May 1 
1938, puddle i in the road, 4.5 miles Sodbe est of Ashland, ale 
Co., Mo. (Leslie Hubricht) ; January, 1939, naan in Forest 
Park, St. Louis, Mo., (E, D. Bueker). 
