36 



DESCRIPTION OF THE EUROPEAN PLUMED GNATS. 



a brown one, encloses the dusky back on both sides. The sides white 

 with a black triangular spot. The abdomen yellowish-brown, some- 

 times rather brownish -grey, behind the division paler. Legs, pale 

 yellow. Poisers white. Wings unspotted. Found in May on the 

 sea coast. Length, one fourth of an inch. 



The maggot lives in water, and is as clear and transparent as crystal. 

 It is nearly cylindrical, though a little tapering from the head back- 

 wards, and having a double hook on the head. On the fore part, 

 where the body is rather thickest, two brown kidney -shaped bodies are 

 seen internally, and not far from the vent two similar smaller ones.* 

 The last ring has on the under side an egg-oblong, leaf-like fin, and 

 at the vent two fleshy horns. In adolescence (nymphe) the insect has 

 two horns on the head, and at the vent two egg-oblong fins. After 

 ten or twelve days the full grown gnat comes forth. Reaumur found 

 the maggot in July and August ; De Geer also found it in the spring, 

 and the full grown gnat at large in May. (See Reaumur's work, as 

 above quoted.) 



2. The Pale Plumed Gnat. (Corethra pallida, Fabricius.) 

 Whitish, legs spotted with black. Albida, pedibus nigro-punctatis. 

 (fig. 6, the female.) 



Fabr. Ent. Syst. iv. 245, 56, Tipula (pallida) pilosa pallida, pedibus nigro-punctatis. — 

 Syst. Antl. 42, 19, Chiron. pallidus. —GmeZ. Syst. Nat. v. 2826, 107, Tipula pallida. 

 — Panzer, Fauna Germ. cix. 17, Corethra pallida. 



Whitish. Hairs of the antennae, brown. Eyes black. Back-plate 

 (rukkenschild) with three pale-brown stripes in the same place as in 

 the former species. The thigh and the shank white, with black spots ; 

 leg-rings, slightly brownish. Wings, water-coloured, with a slight 

 brownish shade across the middle — From M. Baumhauer's collection. 

 Length of the male, two lines and a half ; of the female, two lines. 



3. The Brown-plumed Gnat (Corethra culiciformis, De 

 Geer.) 



Brown ; abdomen and legs, grey. Fusca, abdomine pedibusque 

 griseis. 



De Geer, Ins. vi. 144, 16, Tipula (culiciformis) fusca, antennis filiformibus maris 

 plumosis; abdomine pedibusque griseis ; costis alarum hirtis. Tab. 23,fig. 3 — 12 — 

 Latreille, Gen. Cr. iv. 247. 



I cannot add anything to this description, as I have never seen a 

 specimen. De Geer found the maggots, which seem equally com- 

 mon with those of the common gnats, in May, in stagnant waters. 



* See Insect Transformations, p. 287, for figures of these. — Editor. 



