é roa i ‘Pier 
DIPTERA. Tae 
Family SIMULIID A&. 
(Black Flies, Buffalo Gnats.) 
The insects of this family are short and small, thick bodied, having 
no simple eyes and no transverse suture in the thorax. They are 
seldom more than a quarter of an inch in length. 
The larvee, so far as known, all live under water, usually in swiftly 
running water, and their structure and habits are both peculiar. The 
following extract sums up the facts regarding the discoveries of early 
stages: 
Schénbauer first discovered that the early stages of the Columbacz midge, egg, 
larva, and pupa, were passed in the water and only left that element to transform 
to the perfect insect. Some time afterwards Verdat and Fries published the trans- 
formations of the Simulium sericeum. The larve of the latter species live under 
the surface of the water on the stems of water plants on the genera Phellandrium 
and Sium. 
The larve are slender, cylindrical, and furnished near the mouth with two singular 
flabelliform appendages arising in pairs. The posterior part of the body is inclosed 
in a semioval cocoon attached to the plant. The pupz have on each side of the 
thorax eight long filiform appendages rising in pairs. The posterior part of the body 
is inclosed in a semioval cocoon attached to the plants. The fly issues below the 
surface of the water, and, rising to the top, is protected by a fine silky covering of 
hairs. 
The early stages of several of the American species have been studied. In the 
American Entomologist (Vol. II, p. 227, June, i870), under the heading, ‘‘The death 
web of young trout,” we described the larva and pupa, with figures of a species 
afterwards described by us as Simulium piscicidium (ibid., p. 367). These larve were 
said by Seth Green to live attached to stones in swift running water and to spin a 
silken thread in which young fish became entangled and killed. This statement 
created much excitement among fish culturists at the time, and really seemed very 
plausible. It was contradicted, however, by Sara J. McBride, of Mumford, N. Y., in 
an article published in the same volume (pp. 365-367), and also by Fred Mather, of 
Honeoye Falls, N. Y., in private correspondence with us. Mrs. McBride found that 
the perfect flies issued about the 1st of April and the 1st of June thereafter the 
larve were found in the streams in great numbers—as a general rule attached to 
water plants 3 or 4 inches below the surface of the water. Some were also attached 
to stones at the bottom. The majority were fastened to green, decaying water cress, 
and these were green in color, while others which held to dead forest leaves of the 
previous year’s growth, which had become entangled with the cress, were brown. 
From this fact she justly argued they fed upon decaying vegetation. There was a 
succession of generations or broods throughout the season, the development of 
asingle brood occupying about two months. The flies issuing in midsummer were 
smaller than those developed in the spring and fall, although no difference in the 
size of the larve and pup was perceptible. 
In the same volume (pp. 229-230), Osten Sacken gives an account of an undetermined 
species found attached to the roots and plants in swift running streams in the vicin- 
ity of Washington. This article contains also an able review of previous writings 
on the subject, and is illustrated with figures taken from Verdat. 
In the American Entomologist (Vol. III, pp. 191-193, August, 1880), Dr. W. S. 
Barnard described the stages, with figures of the eggs, of a common species in the 
mountain streams around Ithaca, N. Y. The eggs were found on the rocks on the 
banks a few inches aboye the surface of the water; the newly hatched larve were 
