CHIRONOMIDyE. 
563 
little flies. They are seldom more than 3 mm. long, of a rather thicker 
build than other Chironomids, and their small size often enables them to 
escape unnoticed ; fig. 361 represents a species which is known to bite at 
Pusa. As with several biting flies, the state of the weather and con¬ 
ditions of temperature and moisture seem to have some influence on 
their appetite for blood, and in Europe they are supposed to bite most 
freely before rain. 
The mode of life of the Ceratopogonince is somewhat different 
from that of other Chironomids. 
The eggs are not laid in strings, but singly or in small clusters, gener¬ 
ally about 30—60 eggs in all. There are two distinct types of larvse. 
One kind is aquatic, snake-like and transparent, and lives on the 
surface of stagnant water or in slow streams. Assisted by a tuft of 
long bristles at the tail end, they move rapidly with a wriggling motion 
along the surface and in the water, and develop into dark coloured 
inactive floating pupae with breathing-horns on the thorax. These aquatic 
larvae are said generally to mature into flies with naked wings, but 
they do not always do so. 
A second and commoner type of Ceratopogonine larva, which is 
supposed to produce, as a rule, hairy-winged flies, is terrestrial, living in 
Fij? 362 . —Terrestrial larva and pupa of Ceratopogon sp. 
Pusa. The larval skin is still attached to the hind end 
OF THE PUPA. 
rotten vegetable stuff, under damp bark and similar places. They are 
caterpillar-like in shape, and have a double foot-like process on the 1st 
thoracic segment, with a somewhat similar structure on the anal seg- 
