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Chapter XXXIII 
Blood-Sucking Flies 
The Diptera or flies are two-winged insects (the 
posterior pair of wings being transformed into halteres), 
and are so distinguished for example from the Hemip- 
tera or bugs which generally have four wings. In the 
Diptera the metamorphosis is complete, eggs, larva, 
pupa, insect ; in the Hemiptera it is not so. The 
following have blood-sucking habits :— 
The Nematocera (pvt^a, thread ; tcepa ?, antenna). 
1. Blepharoceridae. 
Wings iridescent, ample, bare, with creases, no 
4 discal ’ cell on wing (the discal cell lies between the 
second posterior cell and the second basal cell). 
Posterior tibiae with . stout spines, anterior tibiae 
unarmed. The fourth vein is the one immediately 
preceding the large posterior fork, the incomplete 
vein not being counted. They resemble midges. 
The larvae have suckers, and are found attached 
to stones in the water. 
(1) Genus Curupira (? blood-sucking). — No 
incomplete vein between the first and fourth. Eyes 
contiguous. C. torrentium , Brazil. 
(2) Genus Snowia (? blood-sucking). — Eyes 
separated by a broad frons. Palpi four-jointed, well 
developed. 
2. Culicidae. —Mosquitoes or gnats. 
3. Chironomidae. (Midges). 
Head small, often retracted under thorax, which 
has no transverse suture. Simple eyes (ocelli) absent 
