THE IMMATURE STAGES OF BORIOMYIA FIDELIS 
(BANKS) WITH TAXONOMIC NOTES ON THE 
AFFINITIES OF THE GENUS BORIOMYIA 
( NEUROPTERA :HEMEROBIIDAE ) 
By Ellis G. MacLeod 
University of Maryland 
College Park, Maryland 
Introduction 
The genus Boriomyia Banks, 1904 ( sensu Killington, 1937, Car- 
penter, 1940; nec Banks, 1905, Tjeder, 1941, et seq.) is known only 
from the Nearctic Region where it is represented by the type species 
B. fidelis (Banks) and by B. speciosa (Banks). To date the biology 
of the immature stages of neither of these species has been elucidated. 
B. fidelis has been taken with fair frequency in the middle Atlantic 
states and the author has made several attempts to rear this interesting 
hemerobiid; however, it has only been recently that this effort has 
met with any success. Although this study represents a portion of a 
more general investigation of the morphology and ecology of the 
immature stages of the Nearctic Neuroptera, it seems desirable to 
publish these notes at this time because of their bearing on the ques- 
tion of the relationship of Boriomyia to the other genera of the 
Hemerobiidae. 
The writer wishes to express his gratitude to Mr. Ivan Huber of 
the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Educa- 
tion and Welfare, who supplied the author with several living females, 
including the all-important specimens whose offspring form the basis 
for this account. * 
Methods 
The immature stages which were utilized in this study were de- 
rived from three females collected in College Park and Greenbelt, 
Prince Georges Co., Md., in 1956 and 1958. After rearing and pres- 
ervation, thirty-seven first instar larvae, ten second instar larvae, 
eighteen third instar larvae and two pupae were available for mor- 
phological investigations. Although this species can be identified from 
either sex of the adult with good reliability, the best taxonomic char- 
acters are found in the genitalia of the male. Accordingly, three 
pupae, the offspring of a single female, were allowed to transform and 
two of these produced males by which the initial identification of one 
of the original females was confirmed. These identifications were 
made by the writer utilizing the key of Carpenter (1940). 
26 
