380 



DIl^TEliA. 



Several species have beeu found in Europe under the bark 

 of apple trees, etc. Loew states "that the species on -svhich 

 Wagner made his observations is nearly allied 

 ,. to the genus Heteropeza, but still more closely 



to the genus Monodicrana, from the amber of 

 the Tertiary formation on the shores of the 

 Baltic. (Zoological Record, 18G5.) Meinert de- 

 scribes a similar species of worm and its imago, 

 under the name of Miastor metroloas, and charac- 

 terizes the fly as having very short two-jointed 

 ■' palpi, and moniliform eleven-jointed antennae. 

 2 The wings have three veins, the middle one of 

 ,a\ 1 which does not reach the apex of the wing. 



PsYCHODiDJE Zetterstedt. The principal genus 

 in this small famil}^ is Psychoda, compi'isiug 

 small flies with broad, very short, oval whitish 

 Fig. 297. wings, which, like the bod}^, are very hairy. 

 They may be seen fl^'ing and leaping on the banks of, or on the 

 surface of pools, and on windows. The larvae live in dung. 

 The larva of the European P. jyhala^noides (so named from its 

 resemblance to a moth) is "long, subfusiform and depressed, 

 with a slender, straight cylindrical tail, longer than the pre- 

 ceding segment. The pupa has two short appendages, thick- 

 ened at the tips behind the head. The abdomen is tapering." 

 (Westwood.) 



TiPDLiD^ Latreille. The Daddy-long-legs or Crane-flies 

 are well known by their large size and long legs, and from their 

 close resemblance in form have probablj^ given rise to the 

 humorous stories of giant mosquitoes, which sometimes appear 

 in newspapers. They are characterized by their slender an- 

 tennjie and palpi, and their remarkably long legs, Avhile the 

 abdomen is very slender and cylindrical in shape ; the group 

 chiefly differs, however, from other flies, according to Baron 

 Osten Sacken (Monograph of the Diptera of Korth America, 

 Part iv), in the presence of a transverse V-shaped suture 

 across the mesonotum ; by the completeness of the venation, 

 and the presence of a well developed ovipositor, "with its two 



