Tue CRANE-Fiies or New York — Part II 769 
Famity Tanyderidae 
Larva (supposition).— Body eucephalous, metapneustic. Integument smooth, shiny white. 
Last two segments of abdomen produced into a stout, non-retractile breathing tube, which 
is distinctly five-lobed at the tip. Tracheal gills two, very large, pinnately branched. Head 
with scattered punctures, which are multisetose; lateral plates of head united across venter. 
Mandibles opposed, narrow, tridentate. Maxilla with palpus two-segmented, the outer 
lobe digitiform, pubescent. Labrum small, semi-circular, with two punctures; clypeus with 
four punctures. 
Pupa.— Unknown. 
The Tanyderidae comprise a group of primitive crane-flies including 
but three recent genera, with ten species. Of these the genus herein 
considered, Protoplasa, with three known species, is found in the Northern 
Hemisphere. All that is known concerning the biology of supposed 
species of this group pertains to Protoplasa fitchii and is discussed below. 
Genus Protoplasa Osten Sacken (Gr. first + to form) 
1859 Protoplasa O. 8. Proce. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 252. 
1878 Idioplasta O. S. Cat. Dipt. N. Amer., p. 222. 
The genus Protoplasa is confined to temperate North America. There 
are three known species, of which P. vipio O. S. and P. vanduzeei Alex. 
are western in their distribution, while P. fitchiz O.S. is eastern. The 
general characters of the supposed larva are given above; the detailed 
account in connection with the species P. fitchii follows. 
Protoplasa fitchi O. 8. 
1859 Protoplasa fitchii O. 8S. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 252. 
The remarkable insect Protoplasa fitchii is one of the rarest of the 
local crane-flies. There are scarcely a score of specimens extant in the 
various collections of the country, most of which are from the mountainous 
section of North Carolina. The fly has not been reared, but the writer has 
in his possession a larva that he refers with much confidence to this species. 
It is one of the most remarkable dipterous larvae that have ever come to 
the writer’s notice, and, whether or not it belongs to Protoplasa, it should 
certainly be called to the attention of entomologists in the hope that it 
may some day be bred and its identity confirmed or ascertained. These 
peculiar dipterous larvae were discovered by H. 8. Barber, C. T. Greene, and 
