560 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and there was an inner cocoon of finer threads closely woven. An exam- 

 ination of the contained pupa showed it to be a hemerobian. From some 

 pupa cases stripped from the trough and placed in a vial plugged with 

 cotton, I first bred on June 18 the species described above as CI i m a c i a 

 dictyona n. sp. The same day I found my first specimen at large 

 in one of the hatcher}- windows. 



During the remainder of June the imagos of this species were fairly 

 common. Then they disappeared, to reappear in some numbers about 

 the middle of August. Whether this means another distinct brood I 

 can not say, with certainty. 



The lar\-ae and pupae are very similar in form and in habits to those 

 of Sisyra, described above. The cocoons are similarly located, and 

 are often intermixed with those of Sisyra, but are much more beauti- 

 fully and skilfully wrought. The imagos were taken a few times at trap 

 lanterns, and in sweeping of aquatic vegetation, but the hatchery ceiling 

 was the best collecting ground. The eggs were not found. The larvae, 

 as in Sisyra, live on fresh-water sponges. 



I could find none of these sponges in condition fit for determination ; 

 up to the time of leaving Saranac Inn no gemmules were developed on 

 them. The commoner species, and the one on which larvae of both 

 Sisyra and C 1 i m a c i a were observed, was probably S p o n g i 1 1 a 

 fragilis Leidy; for they appeared to be quite the same species as 

 that on which I found Sisyra larvae at Lake Forest, and that was 

 certainly S. fragilis. It was not without interest that I noted a 

 striking difference in the behavior of this sponge in the two localities. 

 At Lake Forest it grows on logs in a very shallow, exposed pond, which 

 generally dries up about midsummer, leaving the logs exposed, usually 

 to remain so for several months. There, gemmules were fully formed 

 before the first of July. In the cool, deep, permanent water of Little 

 Clear pond, however, where sponges were likewise abundant on the logs 

 but not subject to exposure and evaporation, I could find no gemmules 

 at all up to the time of my departure, August 20. 



I would suggest that as a common name for the insects of these two 

 genera, spongilla flies, or sponge flies, would not be inappropriate. 



