THE CRANE-FLIES OF NEW YORK 
PART I. DISTRIBUTION AND TAXONOMY OF THE ADULT FLIES! 
CHARLES PauL ALEXANDER 
_ The crane-fly fauna of New York State may be considered as repre- 
sentative of that of northeastern North America. Fot more than half 
a century New York has been one of the favorite collecting grounds for 
students of this neglected group of insects. The original plan of the present 
paper was to include only the species that are actually known to occur 
in this State. However, it should be understood and appreciated that in 
groups of insects which have been long ignored by almost all students 
of entomology, such as the group under consideration, it is still impossible 
to give the exact range of any particular species, and forms that seem 
to be confined to certain sections of the country upset all calculations 
by reappearing in distant regions which had been considered as far outside 
the range of the species. Thus it is possible that almost any species 
occurring in northeastern America may be found within the limits of this 
State, altho some species are now known only from localities so distant 
as to make it seem improbable that they may be found here also. For 
this reason the scope of the present paper has been extended to include 
the northeastern United States and eastern Canada — Labrador and 
Newfoundland, south to Virginia and Kentucky, west to Iowa, Minnesota, 
and Manitoba. It is believed that this area includes about all of the 
local probabilities, but there are undoubtedly new species yet to be dis- 
covered and lost species to be recognized. 
The number of species of crane-flies that should occur in New York 
State is probably not less than three hundred, and this figure seems 
similarly applicable to many areas of equal extent and equal diversity of 
ecological conditions in the North Temperate Zone. 
The student of this group of flies will find that there is still very much 
to be done in determining the exact seasonal and geographical distribution 
1 This study was conducted in the entomological laboratory of Cornell University, under the direction 
of Dr. James G. Needham, Dr. J. Chester Bradley, and Dr. O. A. Johannsen, to whom the writer is 
indebted for many helpful criticisms and suggestions. 
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