780 CHARLES PauL ALEXANDER 
The genus Bittacomorphella contains but two described species, the 
genotype, B. jonest (Johns.), and the larger B. sackenii (Réder) from 
western America, the immature stages of which are wholly unknown. 
There is no published literature on the biology of this group of crane-flies. 
Bittacomorphella jonesi (Johns.) 
1905 Bittacomorpha jonesi Johns. Psyche, vol. 12, p. 75-76. 
Bittacomorphella jonesi is a curious little phantom crane-fly, not uncom- 
mon in cold Canadian woods thruout the Northern States, where it is 
usually found near running water or springs and often in small, dark 
ravines or along shaded runs. .The adult flies sometimes lurk beneath 
low, dark bridges and culverts, where they are often associated with 
species of Dolichopeza and Oropeza. An account of the habits of the 
adults of this species may be found in an earlier paper by the writer 
(Alexander, 1916b: 545-546). 
- The larval habitat is very different from that of other local species 
of the family, which, as a rule, prefer open swamps, swales, or wet 
meadows. ‘The larvae of this species live in rich organic mud in shaded 
woods. They were first found on the Bool hillside at Ithaca, New York, 
beneath decaying beech leaves in wet or damp mud which was mixed 
with old beechnuts, hulls, acorns, butternuts, broken decayed twigs, 
and similar débris. The Bool area is a very steep hillside with a general 
northern exposure, heavily shaded with tall forest trees. In former days 
it extended far to the eastward and was connected with Sim Jim Woods, 
near the second bridge in Forest Home. The cut area is now a pasture, 
but patches of skunk cabbage and cat-tails still persist. On the shaded 
hillside the skunk cabbage occupies pockets or level areas where the soil 
is largely calcareous. The forest cover consists of beech, hard maple, 
basswood, yellow birch, red oak, butternut, elm, a few large alders, a 
few aspens, and on the surrounding hillside a thick stand of hemlock. 
The shrubs include Ribes floridum L’Her., Cornus alternifolia Linn. f., and 
similar species. The herbage at this season is of the dominant skunk 
cabbage, young seedlings of Impatiens biflora Walt., Geum rivale Linn.., 
and Cardamine Douglassii (Torr.) Britt. In places there are thick mats 
of mosses, Brachythecium rutabulum (Linn.) B. & 8., on the limy soil, and 
Amblystegium on decaying prostrate limbs. 
