INSECT NOTES. 35 



posterior spiracles (fig. 57) on the last segment open dorsally 

 and are each covered by a hairy flap (fig. 56 fl.). The body 

 ends in two fleshy lobes (fig. 56). 



The pupa is over y^ inch long with small, papilliform, thoracic 

 spiracles ; the caudal end narrower, its apex with 2 slender 

 pointed lobes. The slender, long-legged, mosquito-like adult 

 may readily be distinguished from other crane flies by the pres- 

 ence of a very short and much curved vein near the base of the 

 wing posteriorly and by other points in venation shown in figure 

 13. These flies are not uncommonly found even in late fall 

 and winter hovering over a small brook or spring or over the 

 snow. (Lot 188.) 



Rhyphidae (False Crane flies). 



Rhyphiis punctatus. 



This fly though probably of no great economic importance 

 may not be without interest because of the resemblance the 

 larvae bear to those of Trichocera described above and because 

 of the resemblance the adults bear to the malarial mosquitoes 

 for which they are occasionally mistaken by the non-entomol- 

 ogist. The larvae of the members of this family live in decay- 

 ing vegetable matter. The specimens from which the following- 

 description was drawn were found in cow dung. 



The larva is a slender, cylindrical, legless maggot over fi of 

 an inch in length with 12 distinct body segments which 

 are broadly marked with mottled brownish or purplish bands 

 leaving only the sutures white. The twelfth segment is shorter 

 and smaller than the others, less sharply separated from the 

 eleventh, and ends in 2 rounded fleshy lobes margined with 

 setae (fig. 48). Ventrally there is an oval anal plate perforated 

 by a transverse slit near the posterior margin (fig. 49). Dor- 

 sally are the 2 crescent shaped spiracles (fig. 48 sp.) which are 

 bounded laterally though not covered by flaps ; between them 

 is a transverse fold margined with setae. The thoracic spiracles 

 (fig. 47) are small and have but 3 more or less oval apertures. 

 The antennae are very minute, two segmented and papilla-like. 

 The mandible (fig. 44) is apically densely covered with two tufts 

 of hair, one on each side, and which so overhang the tip that 



