THE SPEAR-WINGED FLIES 



(Family Lonchopteridce.) 



The flies which belong to this group have not the slightest 

 general interest, but they are structurally very different from 

 other flies, showing even more differences than are necessary to 

 the establishment of the group as a separate family. They are very 

 minute creatures, some of them being only one-twelfth of an inch 

 in length, and they are also slender. But two species are known 

 in this country, both belonging to the genus Lonchoptera, and 

 both occurring also in Europe. They are common all through 

 the summer in damp, grassy places, as on the banks of well- 

 shaded streams. Their larvae apparently undergo very interesting 

 transformations, but no studies have been made in this country 

 and in Europe — the knowledge of entomologists dated back to 

 some incomplete observations made by Sir John Lubbock as long 

 ago as 1862 — until within the past year de Meijere of Holland 

 has described, with figures, the early stages of Lonchoptera lutea. 

 The larvae live under leaves and decaying vegetable matter on the 

 surface of the ground, and have the peculiar habit of transforming 

 to what may be termed a semi-pupa or a wingless maggot-like 

 creature within the last larval skin, subsequently transforming to 

 a true pupa. The careful working out of the life history of these 

 flies ought not to be difficult, and such careful work is decidedly 

 needed. 



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