1#17] Marckand — Notes on the Habits of the Snow-Fly (Chionea) 151 



is any special adaptation by tropism to the life on the snow, as 

 apparently the case in Chionea. 



The species treated here was probably Bezzi's Chionea alpina 

 described by him in 1908, a few years before these observations 

 were made. I conclude this from a comparison of my specimens 

 with Bezzi's description, finding the characters to agree pretty 

 closely. Characteristic for Chionea alpina are: the color, being 

 yellowish but darker than in lutescens, the thickened femora, the 

 stiff bristle-like hairs on the legs, showing a distinctly serial arrange- 

 ment, the seven- jointed antennae (eight in valga, nine to ten in 

 araneoides) and the hairs on these which are, in lutescens, much 

 longer than in the northern species. Moreover, the type-locality 

 of Bezzi's species, Chiareggio, Valtellina December 8, 1899), is 

 not very far from my locality, and separated from it only by the 

 Engadine valley. On the other hand, Bezzi records another 

 specimen of Chionea alpina, which he received from the Silvretta- 

 glacier, likewise in the Rheetic Alps and not far from the Davos- 

 valley. The size of my specimens ranges from 2-4 (9 5?) mm. in 

 length. 



As far as I know, C. alpina has not yet been figured, and the 

 accompanying imperfect drawings may facilitate comparison with 

 other species. Bezzi states that in the female of Chionea alpina 

 the ovipositor is always curved upwards, a feature which, however, 

 was absent in the specimen from Silvretta- glacier. My specimen 

 did not show anything of this sort. Possibly, the ovipositor 

 assumes this position after copulation has taken place or after ovi- 

 position. Another characteristic which presents some difficulty is 

 the number of antennal joints. I believed my specimens to be 

 six- jointed, but Bezzi gives seven joints as the number in his species, 

 the last two joints being discernible, as Lundstroem has pointed out, 

 by the position of the bristles. I have made some drawings of the 

 antennae, as accurately as possible, on which it is seen that they 

 may be called seven- jointed, the last two joints being however 

 fused into one. 



Note. — One of the two male specimens still in my possession was 

 found to have lost all its legs during transportation, showing also in 

 this peculiarity its relationship to the Tipulids. I notice that all 

 the legs have broken off at the trochanter, the latter remaining at- 

 tached to the coxa. It seems, therefore, that there is a predisposed 



