99 



NOTES ON A SIMULIUM COMMON AT ITHACA, N. Y. * 



By L, 0. Howard. 



Prof. J. H. Comstock has been studying for some time a Black Fly 

 which occurs in its earlier stages in enormous numbers in and about the 

 streams at the head of Cayuga Lake, and which may or may not be 

 identical with the species studied by Dr. W. S. Barnard, and which he 

 treated in 1880 in the third volume of the American Entomologist. I 

 am of of the opinion that it will prove to differ on account of differences 

 in the manner of oviposition. Dr. Barnard's species was studied at But- 

 termilk Creek, 3 miles south of Ithaca, while the species observed by 

 Professor Comstock inhabits the Cascadilla and Ithaca gorges, both of 

 which are on the north side of the city. 



As a boy I was familiar with the large black slimy masses of larvae 

 attached to the rocky bottom of the Cascadilla, as, indeed, what Ithaca 

 boy was not. We all avoided them as if they had been poisonous, and 

 called them ''Blood-suckers," and every one of us firmly believed that 

 he would be a "goner" if he accidentally stepped upon a clump while 

 bathing. Their true nature was not known until well along in the sev- 

 enties, when Professor Comstock discovered their real affinities. The 

 old name and the old superstition, however, still clings to them among 

 the youthful bathers in these streams. 



To day (September 2, 1888) I have just taken a walk through the 

 Ithaca gorge in company with Professor Comstock and have been much 

 interested in observing these insects after having studied Simulium 

 t'e?iws^i^m at Washington, and being familiar with the collected speci- 

 mens, in all stages, of >S'. meridionale and S. xjecuarum studied by 

 Professor Eiley from Arkansas and Mississippi, and described by 

 him in his 18815 report. There had evidently been a comparatively 

 sudden fall in the water, and we were enabled to make our observations 

 dry shod. Many patches of larvae were left high and dry, and were 

 wriggling and dying, in glistening masses, under the hot rays of the 

 sun. The bottom of the stream is solid rock into which many small 

 pot-holes have been worn, and some of these holes were still filled with 

 water, making miniature aquaria, which seemed teeming with animal 

 life like the tide pools on the sea-coast. Simulium larvae of all sizes 

 were found in these pools, and with them the larvae of Ephemerids, of 

 iSialis, of Hydropsyche^ and others which we did not recognize. One 

 large green Phrygauid larva, with two tripartite anal hooked processes 

 was observed destroying one of the Simulium larvae. 



•^ This article was sent in as a field note while making a brief sojourn at Ithaca, 

 with the hope that it would arrive in time for the September number. It was too late, 

 however, and is published in this number without further elaboration, which would 

 take more time than I can just now spare. — L. O. H. 



