STONEFLIES, ALDER, SMUTS, ETC. 293 



SMUTS OR CURSES 



The smuts or curses (in which the black gnat of 

 the angler is included) are small black or dark brown 

 flies belonging to the great order of the Diptera. I 

 do not propose troubling the reader with much dis- 

 sertation on the Diptera generally, and as in 1888 

 the late Mr. G. H. Verrall in "A List of British 

 Diptera" included about 2500 species and fore- 

 shadowed further additions, it is perhaps as well if 

 the length of this book is to be kept within any- 

 ordinary limits. 



The fisherman's curse (a name given nearly half 



a century ago) is one of the 



Fisherman's curse. genus Hilara, which belongs 



to the family of the Empidae. 

 It is believed that the larva is aquatic, and the 

 winged insect is described as being small, and of a 

 grey-black colour, sparsely covered with hairs. Palpi 

 three-jointed, proboscis prominent, antennae curved 

 upwards. Eyes separated in both sexes, ocelli three, 

 abdomen brown in colour, slender in the male and 

 broad in the female. 



Reed smut was a name given by Marryat to the 



smuts, of which the larvae and 



Reed smut. pupae pass their lives attached 



to reeds or ribbon weed {Spar- 

 ganium ramosum). In Plate XXXV are shown the 

 larva and pupa, and the insect itself is referred to at 

 page 226 and drawn in Fig. 38. 



