104 
president’s ADDRESS — SECTION D. 
INSECTA 
To give an adequate account of the cryptozoic insect life of 
Australasia would he a task far beyond the scope of the present address, 
and would, moreover, require the co-operation of several entomological 
specialists. Most of the large groups are represented in some stage 
or other of their life-history, the most conspicuous being the ants and 
beetles and various Orthoptera, especially cockroaches. The ants, 
perhaps, offer a more promising and less-worked field for investigation 
than any other group of terrestrial animals in Australia, and it is 
sincerely to be desired that some of our local naturalists will take the 
subject up and make a thorough investigation, not only of their 
systematic characters, but also of their habits and life-history. In 
New Zealand they do not appear to be so abundant, although some 
species are common enough. A number of Australasian species have 
been described by Eorel and others, while observations on the habits of 
some New Zealand species have been published* by Mr. W. W. Smith, 
of Ashburton, to whom I am indebted for valuable information. 
Some of the most curious cryptozoic animals which I have met 
with are the immature stages of certain Dipterous flies. Oue of these 
is, J am informed by Mr. Skusc, the pupariuin of Miarodon . It is 
an oval, plano-convex body, nearly white in colour, and with rows 
of brown warts on the upper convex surface. Several species of this 
occur in A ustralia, and they constitute most puzzling objects even to 
a zoologist who sees them for the first time. 
Both in Australia and New Zealand, Dipterous larvae of the group 
Mycetophilidse are frequently met with under decaying logs. These 
are slender worm-like creatures, commonly of a greyish or blackish 
colour, and less than an inch in length. They make very remarkable 
networks or webs of transparent slime, sometimes in thin threads 
studded with glistening dewdrops. Each larva supports itself in such a 
web, and can move both backwards and forwards in it with considerable 
activity, and in a fashion which reminds one of the rapid opening and 
closing of a telescope. They belong to a group of fungus-feeding flies, 
and probably live upon the moulds which infest the rotten wood on 
which they make their webs. Mr. Skuso has identified one of these 
web-making larva 1 as that of Ceroplalus mas l tarsi , f 8k., which he tells 
me is a black-looking fly about -|-inch long in body, and very common 
on windows in Sydney from September to March. In this case the 
larvae and pupae are luminous, but not the fly. I have recently found 
larvae, very similar to those which I have observed in Victoria, in the 
Alford Forest, New Zealand; but these are not luminous. J It is 
doubtful also whether the common Victorian form belongs to 
Ceroplatus mastersi , for a series of beautiful drawings of the life- 
bistory, made by my friend Mr. C. C. Brittlebank, of Myrniong, 
Victoria, show a perfect insect differing considerably from the 
description of that species. 
The “ New Zealand glow-worm,” Bolitopliila luminosa, Skuse, is 
another member of the Myeetophilida?, whose larva makes a slimy 
* “On the Origin of Ants’ Nests” — Entomologists 1 Monthly Magazine, series 2, 
vol. iii., p. 00. 
f Vide Proc. Linn. Soe. N.S.W., vol. iii., 1888, p. 1123 ; and vol. v., 1890, p. 001. 
Iflt.is very probable that these belong to a new species. Mr. P. Marshall, of 
the Agricultural College, Lincoln, has undertaken the investigation of their life- 
history. 
