378 
Psyche 
[September 
indicating that disposal of this section does not represent elmination 
of waste from the digestive tract. 
Leptomorphus walkeri , the only other member of this genus whose 
natural history has been described, appears to be similar to the species 
of this study. The form of the eggs and the sites at which they 
occur are nearly identical to those described above (Brocher 1931). 
The larvae are also associated with fungi (Edwards 1924, Brocher 
1931), usually on the undersurface of the fungus (Brocher 1931). 
They probably also build silk sheets: Edwards (1924) notes that 
they build a “web”, and Brocher (1931) reports that they lay net- 
works of silk trails which they use to support themselves under the 
fungi, but Madwar (1937) claims that they construct only slime 
tubes. Brocher found that larvae sometimes ate silk from old trails, 
and his brief description of silk-laying movements indicates they are 
at least roughly similar to those of L. subcaeruleus and L. bifasciatus. 
The larval food has not been established, although Madwar (1937) 
speculated that larvae fed on “microscopic bits of fungus” dislodged 
when the head tapped against the fungus. The pupae are suspended 
on threads (Brocher 1931, Madwar 1937), at least sometimes at 
sites with open spaces below (Brocher 1931). 
These observations indicate that the larvae of L. subcaeruleus 
and L. bifasciatus normally feed on spores caught in their sheets: 
they were almost always found under spore-shedding structures of 
fungi; they constructed sheets of silk which collected spores; they 
periodically ingested these sheets and their contents; and their ali- 
mentary tracts contained large quantities of spores. Other myce- 
tophilid larvae, in the genus Ceroplatus, apparently subsist on spores 
caught in sheets of slime (Madwar 1937, Stammer 1937), but are 
carnivorous at times (Mansbridge 1933). Several Leptomorphus 
larvae were found during this study which were not near fruiting 
fungi, and one dead larva was partially eaten by two other larvae 
in captivity, indicating that these species of Leptomorphus may also 
be carnivorous at times. 
Fig. 6. Spinning motions of L. subcaeruleus larvae. The attachments 
made by one larva in a typical series of swings are represented by dark bars 
in A. The sequences of successive attachments during four typical series of 
swings by two individuals are shown in B. The frequency with which an 
attachment in one zone (labelled in A) was followed by an attachment in 
another zone is indicated by the width of the arrow running from the first 
to the second zone. 
