Tue CRANE-FLIES oF NEw YorK — Part I 775 
which unquestionably will supply many new, chiefly local, records when 
their contents are made known. 
SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE SPECIES 
The families that make up the insects known as crane-flies are four 
in number — the Tanyderidae, the Ptychopteridae, the Rhyphidae, and 
the Tipulidae. All but the last-named of these families are very limited 
in number of species, the total number of described forms being not far 
in excess of threescore. Crane-flies belong to the division Nematocera 
of the suborder Orthorrhapha. They are characterized by having six 
- or more segments in the elongated antennae. The only families of flies 
with which crane-flies might be confused are the Bibionidae and the 
Dixidae. 
Crane-flies are very often of large size. They are the largest of the 
Nematocera and are among the largest of all Diptera. The differences 
in size found in the family Tipulidae are very great, ranging from the 
giants of the family, Ctenacroscelis praepotens, Tipula brobdinagia, and 
others, down to such species as Hrioptera parva and Molophilus ursinus, 
veritable pygmies. In the area considered in this paper, the largest 
species found are Longurio testaceus and Tipula abdominalis, and the small- 
est is Molophilus ursinus. 
In appearance crane-flies may be described as mosquito-like and they 
are very often mistaken for mosquitoes, the larger species often causing 
great alarm. There are no crane-flies, however, that have the biting 
habits of the Culicidae. The legs of all crane-flies are long and slender, 
in some cases being exceedingly so, and this feature has given most of the 
common names that are applied to these insects — crane-flies, daddy 
longlegs, and the like. The wings are many-veined (polyneura), and in 
most species they possess a completely inclosed discal cell (1st M2). 
In all Tipulidae and in the trichocerine Rhyphidae there are two anal 
veins, a character never possessed by the more specialized Nematocera. 
On the mesonotum there is a distinct, more or less transverse, V-shaped 
suture separating the prescutum from the scutum. In the Tanyderidae, 
the Ptychopteridae, and the Rhyphidae this suture is rather poorly defined. 
Ocelli are found only in the Rhyphidae. The large size, the inclosed 
discal cell, the presence of two anal veins, and the V-shaped suture, are 
sufficient to distinguish the local species of Tipulidae. 
